A Pirate I Was Meant to Be
by Tallemy
Summary: What if a merman wants to join the crew of Ornitier in order to earn a place in the ranks of pirates? Can a seadweller even whitstand the life on a ship or will he jump back into the sea after a few days? But General Minamisawa is restlessly hunting the ship, and the merman brings a completely new kind of danger fo the raggy crew.
1. Chapter 1

Chaos reigned over the ship.

The smell of gunpowder quickly filled the air. After the siege, things have gotten rather fiery among the two crews. And something like this wasn't supposed to happen if everything would've went according to his plans. They were only after the goods of the cargo ship but Namikawa underestimated its importance and let the soldiers appearing on the deck surprise him. Needless to say, everything went out of hands after that.

This was not among his plans. Not at all. All he wanted was to rob them out of their goods and run.

But now it was almost impossible as the navy's thugs closed in on them.

"Any ideas, captain?" Wanda Naoto, his first mate looked at him, probably expecting a good solution from the great captain. Yet all Namikawa could do was to shrug and keep defending from the incoming attacks, viciously swinging his sword forward.

"Do you think we would be here if I had any idea?" he hissed.

"Then think of something?"

"Just keep fighting. The more goes down the better chances we have for escaping."

They slowly started making their way back to their ship, dancing like their swords were their partners, jumping away from incoming attacks. Alas, this deemed to be a useless trying, as they were still fighting in the middle of the deck.

If only the side of the cargo ship was closer… If only…

"Oh look! If it isn't some dirty _pirat_ on this clean deck. How hideous."

The fight froze for a split second.

A few metres away from them a boy wearing the uniform of the naval captains ascended the stairs, holding an expensive blunderbuss in his right hand. His golden eyes gleamed in the smoke as he carefully observed the trespassers on his ship.

Pirates. The most hateful creatures on this vast ocean, who mindlessly attack any ship that comes in their way.

"Oi, Rensuke, are you sure you want to dirty my Artemicion? Are you?"

Rensuke clicked his tongue irritably and brought his sword-using hand down. His face twitched into an unpleasant smile.

"Your Artemicion? The last time I've seen yer snobbish face you were only a lieutenant on the Crescent and now you dare to call yourself the owner of this ship?"

The boy wearing white gloves only shook his head in disappointment. Seemingly the captain's words angered him as he drew his sword, holding his blunderbuss in his left hand.

"Unlike someone, I did my best to earn ranks."

"You mean licked your best?" barked Wanda from afar, not letting this chance go away without any comments.

"Insult me all you want, I don't care." he said, then pointed his blunderbuss towards Namikawa "But I do care about that reward posted on your captain's head!"

"Oh, Minamisawa, you're dead wrong here. The reward was posted on _everyone_'s head in my crew, catching only me would be a waste of time, wouldn't it, Naoto?"

Wanda Naoto gave him a look as Namikawa continued his theatrical antics slowly distancing himself from his partners on the deck. His captain had a sly smile on his face, meaning that he finally had some sort of plan.

"What do you mean?" asked Minamisawa keeping an eye on Namikawa's every movement. But while the navy officer tried to figure out what was Namikawa's goal with this idle chat, Naoto, who stood near the main mast suddenly understood the plan of his captain, signalling Umigishi Tairamaru to shake off the soldiers on their right. As they stood no chance against his boulder like figure and collapsed easier than a tower without cement.

"That if you keep focusing on me my mates might escape, so does your reward!"

"What?!"

Before Minamisawa Atsushi could do anything about the escaping crew members Rensuke attacked him from the front. He barely blocked the hit with his blunderbuss. It left a nasty mark on the precious barrel, knocking of the gilded engravings. The navy officer wanted to shout at him for being a barbar, but Rensuke quickly delivered a kick in his knees.

"As I said, without them, I'm just your everyday worthless pirate scum. Turning me in wouldn't give you enough money for a hairdresser, just saying." he cackled, watching as his mates quickly started throwing sacks on the Ornitier. Everything went well.

"My handkerchief will wipe up your blood!"

„So you got that job as janitor, after all. And there I was thinking you might've gotten a better rank."

He was about to escape when he heard a voice. Right behind his head a toneless voice lapping up his neck like a lukewarm breeze.

"_Freeze!_"

Rensuke instinctively leapt away, leaving an opening on his defence what Minamisawa immediately used for his advance causing the captain to trip and fell forward, landing hard on his knees.

"That's the end of your voyage, pirate."

Minamisawa smirked at his new subordinate. Ibuki Munemasa was only a freshman under his wings, but he always had to be in the center of attention, like some kind of freak. Of course, he had to butt into his business with Namikawa.

"You wish. Everybody get moving!" Namikawa commanded. "I'll go after you, just go."

"Rensuke, will you be alright?" Naoto asked as he fiercely fought back, clearing the way to their ship, but his captain was already occupied by the two officers, jumping away from their attacks. He tried edging closer to the side of the ship.

"I said go!' Rensuke shouted impatiently as he leapt at Minamisawa again. "We will meet later, just don't start acting like my mother because this is clearly not the time that."

He didn't have time for sappy goodbyes this time or his mates might've fallen with him too and knowing Wanda he wouldn't hesitate to risk his life for him. But now he needed to fulfil his role as a captain and sunk this goddamned ship to ensure the safety of his mates.

Minamisawa shook his head, "What a fool."

As Rensuke tried to neglect their attack he got cornered at the other side of the ship with only the wooden handrail between him and the sea. Out of the two possible deaths that came into his mind, he wanted to choose something worthy of a pirate.

Something what didn't include being stabbed or gunned down by coward lapdogs of the navy. So the only thing he could choose was to jump, hoping that his first mate will listen to him and won't turn back with the Orinitier.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Minamisawa, but alas, I have to leave your extremely entertaining company and you fluffy new dog."

His feet parted with the handrails.

Only a terrified shout could be heard, filled with very Minamisawa-like malicious growling. Rensuke couldn't help but smile at this act. Dying by the hand of those idiots had no rewards.

The impact made him dizzy, but he didn't lose his consciousness right after sinking deep into the sea.

Compared to the world above the water, this place was enveloped by silence and darkness, endlessly taking away his vision.

Or so he felt like it.

Before he slipped away, he could hear a voice breaking the silence of the sea.

**[Hey, are you alright?]**

**A/N: As I hinted it in my last drabble, I was planning on writing something like this for a while. I mean, I've seen way too many "pirate-themed" fics being stuck at using Raimon, while InaGO had many great pirate and navy themed characters! It's a waste of potencial not to use any of them in a setting like this! D:**

**Reviews are always welcomed, even highly anticipated, but they're not a necessity, I guess?**


	2. Chapter 2

**[2] The Lookout**

He didn't know how much time had passed since he fell into the water, nor why was he conscious of his thoughts, but only one thing disturbed him greatly: those rocks, those freaking rocks what kept digging into his spine.

It made him more confused.

"Finally, I thought you would never wake up." a voice was calling him in the middle if the ocean. Now that was even weirder.

As he looked to his left he saw a rather masculine girl staring back at him from the water. The end of her long black hair softly rocking on the surface of the waves, and the short strands of red in her bangs gave her a mysterious atmosphere, but there was one thing Namikawa couldn't get over, no matter how hard he tried.

Those ears. Or flippers. He had no idea what would a normal human call them. It somehow fit the boy, but aside from that it was creepy for his taste.

"What's yer problem? Cat's got your tongue?" the boy asked, his black eyes carefully scanning Namikawa. "Thought ye have no wounds."

"No, I bet I have a serious wound in my brain" commented Namikawa looking the sky. "I'm going to die here, hallucinating monsters girls."

"Who are the calling monster, scallywag?" the boy asked, pushing the shipless captain into the water. Namikawa came back almost instantly, gasping for air, trying to get the stinging water out of his eyes. "I'm a proper merman, not some kind of seabeast!"

"Wait, merman? Are you telling me you're a man? A boy? A fishboy?" he asked in a surprised tone after his sight came back.

"Yes?"

"I guess, with fish_parts_?"

"What are you trying to say?" the boy asked, slowly understanding the unspoken thoughts in Namikawa's head. "A-ha…"

"It's just how mermaids have fins for their lower part I guessed that probably you were different seeing how you're a mer_man_ and all." Namikawa tried to explain keeping his dignity, but without his crew backing him, it was a quite hopeless situation. " I didn't mean it that way!"

"Says the scurvy pirate who was marooned by his own mates." the merman laughed.

_Touché. _

Before Namikawa could come up with a comeback the merman pulled himself up to the rocks, showing him his lower half. The orange coloured scales shimmered in the sunlight as tiny water droplets were collected at their connections.

Though his fins weren't in such good shape as his body. They had many holes and their ends were torn and tattered. Namikawa couldn't help but wonder how could someone, who lives in the water ruin them so badly. They weren't supposed to touch anything with their fins anything, but water after all.

"Not bad." he nodded, trying to hide his amazement from the other. "So what's your deal?"

"Why would a merman save your life, and not kill a pirate in the moment it comes back to his senses, I wonder." the merman smiled at him, but this was not the usual smile Wanda or the others gave Namikawa when they successfully looted a ship, no, this was a smile of a machinator. "You're a keyman in my plan, because you see, I want to be a quartermaster!"

It took Namikawa good few minutes to comprehend the words that left the mouth of that lousy merman.

Quartermaster.

Someone who has no legs.

A Quartermaster?

"Have you lost your remaining screws?" he wanted to retrain himself but this kid was crazy.

The merman crossed his hands over his pale chest. "That or you won't ever see your beloved Ornitier again."

True. Thought Rensuke. He'd told Wanda to leave with the ship immediately, so probably they were heading to Winslow Island or some smaller isle. Yet, he couldn't let a fish be his first mate, not when that role was filled by Wanda, his dearest friend.

He could only imagine Wanda's face if he came home with a merman, announcing that said fish will take over a job on the ship, what requires swift movements, a good head in his neck and a special bond with other crewmembers.

"Look, while I'm grateful for your help, currently I have no free positions on my ship."

"You even have a cabin door unlocker?" the merman blinked sadly.

"We have no doors on my ship that needs to be unlocked." Namikawa lied. He still couldn't find the key to one of their storage.

"What about a driller then? I could sink ships by drilling holes into them, like I always do whenever the navy is fighting with pirates and I get bored."

Namikawa's interest was piqued by the name of the navy.

"You drill holes into their ships?"

The boy nodded. "By the by, I'll leave you now. Don't go anywhere or you'll be sorry."

Then with a hop, he disappeared in the sea, leaving Rensuke completely alone with his tiny rock-island.

_It's not like I could._ thought the young captain as he climbed back to his throne.

::::::::::: :::::::::::

Hours have passed but the merman was nowhere to be seen and Namikawa started to running out of rocks as the tide slowly rose the water to his navel. He could've swam away, but as he had no idea about the whereabouts of the nearest land, waiting was safer.

In the meantime he tried to find a good excuse to make the fishboy leave him alone as he was rather persistent about joining his crew.

But right now his priority was to get back to the Ornitier, and make sure that neither Minamisawa nor someone else from the navy had harmed it. In order to do that, he needed a plan.

A plan only pirates could execute.

::::::::::: :::::::::::

The sun almost set when the merman appeared again, holding a flask in his hand. Obviously it was for Rensuke, but the boy didn't hand it to him immediately.

"So, you had some time to think about your situation, am I right?" he smiled.

"Am I you hostage now?" Rensuke tried to get the flask out of those cold hands, but the boy swam away faster than he could reach out to him.

"Pretty much, yes. I could drown you and no one would know what happened to the captain of the Ornitier, the exact same ship what anchored at the port of Rottingham Island this afternoon."

Namikawa stared at him, trying to keep himself in one place. The tide was now almost at his chest, cooling off his body and making his movements sluggish.

If his crew was at Rottingham he needed to get there as fast as he could, because Wanda was trying to do something really stupid to revenge Rensuke's fake death.

"Take me to them! Now!"

The merman just shrugged, handing him the flask filled with water. "You know the magic words."

"Alright, alright, I'll let you join my frigging crew, you seawitch, just let me talk to my first mate. You can't even comprehend how important is this with that fishbrain of yours."

"How about… no?" the merman disappeared in the water, then reappeared behind Namikawa. "You're a pirate. A really clever pirate and speaking of your crew, there is no way you would let me join them, am I right? Captain Namikawa?"

The merman ran his hands in the spine of the captain, resting his hand on Rensuke's shoulder.

"So I'm offering you a fair trade. I'll take you to your friends, but that's the second favour. My only request is that for saving your puny ass and your friend's lives, let me join your crew. I know you want revenge, so I want to help you with it." the merman said swimming further from Namikawa.

The playful smiles and gestures were nowhere to be found. For a full thirty seconds Namikawa sat still and held his breath. The tiny guppy transformed into a shark right in front of him.

"Alright." he reached his hand to seal their contract but once again the merman hed something else in mind.

"Not that easily." he stopped Namikawa when he was about to stand up. "If we're going to make a contract I want it to be lasting, so YOU can't go and just back out whenever your little pirate brain says so."

"So what do you want now? Do you see paper and ink in my hands? Or do you want to carve our contract into a stone with urchin spikes?"

"I want to seal the deal with a blood oath."

"Are you out of your friggin' mind? A blood oath? In the middle of the not-exactly-salty sea? No way."

He regretted those words sooner than they reached the ears of the merman. "Wait…!"

Out of two bad things he always ought to choose the lesser bad and now his crew worth way more than having a wriggling seadweller on his deck. It was a price he would gladly pay for his mates. he reached for his dagger and held it over the water.

"How should we do it?"

"Just cut your palm, I'll cut mine and then we'll shake hands. That's how they do it in old tales."

"Right, but before we do that, tell me your name."

"It's Misaki. Yoshimine Misaki." said the merman, lifting his head wearing a tiny smile. "I hope you're aware that this'll hurt like hell."

Namikawa sent a piercing glare towards the merman, but stayed silent.

He wanted to drop the dagger as soon as it cut through his flesh. It wasn't enough that his skin was covered with sea salt, the dagger wore the same coating. Tears came into his eyes as droplets of blood fell into the water, but he kept his calmness around Misaki as the other boy followed him.

As the boy held his hand, he could feel the merman softly shivering from the pain.

"You won't regret having me as your crewmember." Yoshimine said as he tried to fight back his tears. "Now let's save the Ornitier."

**A/N: And thus I close this chapter with this. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you'll accompany the boys in the next one. uvu Once again, reviews are more than welcome. Haha~ I really love reading opinions or simple musings =w=**


	3. Chapter 3

**[03] Oh, Rottingham!**

"So what's up with Rottingham?" asked Misaki curiously, watching as Namikawa tried to make himself look better than a beached sea sponge.

"You want to be a pirate yet you've never heard of Rottingham nor the Pirate Lords?"

"Pretty much my answer is yes." Misaki pouted, splashing some water towards Rensuke. "Sorry, but I haven't had the time neither sources to be perfect in _piratology_."

Namikawa couldn't believe his ears. This kid wanted to join them, because he is simply interested in this pirating thing? He threw the merman a suspicious glare, wondering what could've been his motivation to join the race what wanted to catch his folks as trophies.

"Say no more. Just sit still until I come back."

"Already leaving your firstmate behind? How nice." Misaki said, justifying himself with a huff after Namikawa.

"First, you're not my firstmate, that's wanda. Second, I don't know if you've noticed but there are some differences between us. Something what we call legs." he responded, turning back to Yoshimine "Or should I drag you along like a sack of potatoes then leave you at the hands of the Governor?"

"Yes, you should."

"No, I shouldn't."

Namikawa realized their argument went nowhere with the merman acting like a stubborn mule. In the meantime his mates were in serious trouble so he couldn't waste more of his precious time on Yoshimine's childish antics. For a merman he was rather immature, yet at the same time he seemed to have his way with words. He had the feelings that one of his side was only a mask, but which one?

In the end, he decided to give the merman some meaningless work to do, fearing that he might do something stupid if he can't distract his attention from the village. What could he ruin by keeping an eye on his ship and the rest of the crew?

::::::::::: :::::::::::

As night approached, people have found their way to the local bars to forget about the stress of the day, finding their everyday seat and enjoying that small time they'd spent anchoring near Rottingham.

The village itself was a small resting place for vagabonds and pirates who wanted to spend a few days away from the sea, without having to hide away from authorities. But aside from serving as the pirate-heaven it was a run-down country village, unfriendly to those who were considered to be greenhorns. The crew of the Ornitier never had to endure their fiendish pirate trials due to having a veteran as their captain in the past; Kuki Masatsugu.

Namikawa halted his steps, thinking about his days as a beginner, when he was eagerly strolling after the veteran sea dog, who robbed many ships and fought a seemingly endless war with the navy. He was never really sheltered away from the cruel world of adults, yet now that he thought about it the captain was always strict with them, sending them back to the ship while he was having _fun_. Although they had learned it the hard way that he was only doing this for their sake…

But many things have changed since that. Compared to the old village-image, the main street was now lined up with shops for buying resources, hell, they even built a church in the middle of the town. That was something Rensuke would've never expected to see at a place like this.

He took one last glance at the small building then turned around and started walking towards the end of the village. The old Governor hated the buzz of the village, so he built his house near the other end of that shore-segment. If Rensuke was lucky the new one continued this old tradition and stayed at the same place, using the same rundown estate as his base of operations.

When the house slowly became visible through the bushes and trees lining the coast, he could easily see the bright light coming from its windows and thanked the gods for being kind to him tonight.

Now, he only needed to get there soon to prevent Wanda asking help from the Governor. This wouldn't only leave the crew of Ornitier indebted to him, but also Rensuke would cease being the captain, thus inevitably losing the ship.

Even if he thought highly of Wanda Naoto, this was something he just couldn't allow.

Not his treasured heritage.

He quickened his steps at the thought of this, not even caring when he had to cross the hundred years old suspension bridge, what creaked under his foot, throwing small bits of dust and dirt in the sea below him.

::::::::::: :::::::::::

While on the other side of the island Misaki tried to find a way to make himself useful, or more like, to join the flow of events.

He hated when they tried to leave him out of the fun and now this is what happened. And now, he was left alone to guard a ship. A ship. Not even a hostage, but a goddamned wooden colossus. Misaki was sure he would kick a hole in its side if he _could_.

For a while he was just floating on his back, counting the planks, forming the ship, mumbling in a weird language.

_This is what you get from cutting your hand. _

"Suffering from the stinging pain, while everyone else is in the middle of doing, well, something." he muttered to himself bitterly. He continued this activity until he'd gotten bored and started throwing rocks and shells on the ship's deck.

_We shouldn't let them go to the Governor, Tairamaru. What if they got caught? _

Suddenly hearing voices from the bridge fuelled a sudden idea in his mind as he continued throwing slightly bigger rock on the deck. The youth on the deck finally gotten suspicious of his act and leant out to see the source of rocks.

"Hey." Yoshimine greeted him with a flat expression.

"What do you want?" the white haired boy asked, unaware of Yoshimine's origins.

"Now that you ask I would be grateful if you could give me some bandage for the scar I've gotten from making an oath with your lousy captain."

"The captain…?!"

Yoshimine nodded, showing them the wound.

"Believe it or not from today, I'm the member of the crew too! That grump, what was his name? Right, Namikawa, provided me the rank of a quartermaster!"

"And you want us to believe that he would demote Naoto that easily?" another head joined to the kid wearing green hairband. This time it was the owner of the voice what he first heard on the deck.

Yoshimine let out a laugh, "After running to the Governor like a coward to… " he stopped in mid-sentence, thinking about something, that would cause the cat to leave its bag. "…to claim ownership of this fine seafarer, the Ornitier? Right now, your dear captain is on his way to settle the score with this very important pirate and your dear friend, so you better be prepared because when the captain comes back he will have a word or to with you."

His words seemed to hit the nail on the head. The two younglings started at him with wide eyes, trying to comprehend the events unfolding before them.

"You, beachhead, would you mind helping me stop this seadog from doing something stupid?" he directed the last question to the bigger boy, named Tairamaru. The small one was too small to help him getting around on the land.

"Can't you just go there by yourself?" he gulped, not wanting to get mixed up in this affair. Being scolded by Namikawa for not stopping Wanda sounded better than meddling with the affairs of his bosses.

"Hey, I'm here—" the smaller one started, but he was stopped when Misaki raised his tail above the water.

"I never once said I was a human." the merman stated.

Openmouthed, the two boys couldn't help staring at the glimmering scales.

"I guess now you understand the problem what comes between helping me and you being shrimp-sized." he responded.

The small kid groaned in distress, while Tairamaru finally collected his courage to face the seamonster.

He didn't avert his gaze from Misaki as he asked the following question. "What do you need?"

"Now that's what I was talking about." Yoshimine grinned. "First get me that whatchamacallit, that thingy with one wheel. I'm not familiar with landlubber dictionary."

"You wouldn't happen to want a wheelbarrow, right?" the small boy asked in a somewhat irritated tone. He was not a shrimp…

"Exactly, a wheelbarrow! Get me a wheelbarrow, quickly."

Tairamaru gradually lost track of why they were helping the strange merman who claimed to be their new quartermaster, but in his head anything was better than waiting for Wanda and if helping this creature meant that they can see Captain Namikawa then they would gladly help with any crazy plan, even if that meant to change a simple wheelbarrow into a ridiculous chariot.

Minutes later the wheelbarrow dutifully rolled through the village, carrying the impatient, but rather clever merman, who couldn't stop staring at the buildings those landlubbers have built in their free-time.

_They truly don't know when they should give up,_ he thought as he watched the passing image of the church tower. Must've been hard building all of this, without the water giving them free access to the higher places.

"By the way, that is your name?" Tairamaru asked him as they arrived to the end of the village.

"Just call me Misaki." Yoshimine waved. "What's yours?

"Tairamaru. But you can call me Tai or Taira. I'm not really fond of that maru part in it." he sighed.

Misaki decided to take a wild guess: "Too long to say it out in emergency situations?"

"Yeah."

"You should stick to it, though." the merman said quietly. But he almost instantly changed his attitude. "Damn, we're getting side-tracked with this whole name-talking. Come on, Tairamaru, stop those idiots!"

"Aye, aye, sir." while the current situation was rather important, Tairamaru couldn't help but laugh at Yoshimine. For a new firstmate he was rather direct with a common cooper.

_**A/N:**__ And now our merman is on the loose and no land can stop him! In the meantime our daring captain is about to unleash his wrath on a very important pirate, now knowing about what disasters fate will bring on him for letting a seadweller chain them together._

_Also, __**cooper**__ is a specialist who make barrels for the crew of the ship and takes care of keeping their food and gunpowder dry. This job required a lot of dedication and learning, thus only wealthy leaders could afford their services. In our case the past of the crew and Ornitier is a bit different thus Tairamaru is not driven by money._

_**Reviews are always welcomed since I spend a lot of time writing each chapter, and reading reviews are really nice after a few hours of hard work and tons of rereadings.**_


	4. Chapter 4

**[04] The **_**V**_**ery **_**I**_**mportant**_** P**_**irate **_**L**_**eader and other matters**

The Governor's house was anything but pleasant.

Once it was the most prosperous estate on the island, but time has left quite impressive marks on its sides and no one ever cared to clean off the pitch black soot from the walls, or simply renovate the ruined parts. It left the impression that the person who owned the house had many enemies and he wasn't scared of making more if he had to.

And that was what Kabutenji Yuu was famous for.

The current leader of Rottingham started pirating at the age of thirteen, about ten years ago. He only started with a loyal friend on his side, but he claimed ownership over the _Black Waltz_ a few months later by pulling a coup d'état on its former captain.

They said he turned the crew against the captain without ever bribing or threatening them. It was how pirates coming from Raimon's territory worked their way up on the rank list. Not with force, but with wits and this made them the most fearsome buccaneers one could ever met.

Luckily enough, in history only a few pirate ships were recorded sailing outside of Raimon territories and most of them were lost, when they tried to spread their wings too much because the small pirates made alliances to bring them down.

To think that now Wanda and his fellow mates were trying to talk with Kabutenji about the Ornitier. Those half-baked idiots.

Without any second thought he almost ripped the front door out of its place as he forcefully opened it.

'_Dwelling on the past won't get me nowhere.'_ he groaned as he started searching for the right room. The house was full of junk from all over the world, weird dolls and idols all over the place. If Kabutenji was bad at something it was keeping his collection at bay. Most pirates wouldn't keep every trash they've found on their journeys, but it seemed the current Governor was way too fond of these small souvenirs.

The most honourable decoration in the house must have been the thunder shaped golden brooch in a glass case. Probably it was a memory from his homeland.

Rensuke started wandering around, looking for the source of the light. He was sure that the room was around the right side, but so far he'd only found the bath and another room, what served as storage.

But when he was about to continue searching for his lost mates in the left wing of the house, faint voices escaped from inside a room. No light under the door. This should've been the sign that it was empty, like any other places in this mess, yet upon listening he really did hear people talking on the other side.

With a swift motion he opened the door, only to find a small waiting room, with a chair sitting at the wall.

_Ha!_

He should've known that someone as important as Kabutenji would make a big fuss of receiving visitors. He would bet that the governor had a small notebook filled with empty appointments just to keep the image of being a **V**ery **I**mportant **P**irate leader in their world.

He yanked the door violently open only to be greeted with his lost crew members, who looked back at him with startled expressions.

The governor, Kabutenji Yuu was a man in his mid-twenties. His silver hair had grown a lot since he started roaming the seas, yet his face still resembled to that young boy who left Raimon for the sake of adventures. When Rensuke joined the small meeting, he did not show any signs of surprise, just let out a small chuckle accompanied by a smile.

"Well, I thought you were sure about the death of your captain." he shot a piercing glare towards Wanda who couldn't stop staring at Rensuke.

"But captain, you were shot by Minamisawa…! Right here! " Nagisa, the gunner of Ornitier tried to explain themselves out of the situation by pointing to his shoulder, but Rensuke was on a rampage, too angry to think about the past. His anger got the worst of him and it was about to hit Wanda.

"Are you stupid?" he stood in front of his first mate.

Wanda Naoto remained silent. He made a mistake, they both knew this, and arguing with his captain would get them nowhere.

"Captain, we're not here about you think we're here!" Nagisa managed to squeeze that one last line out of his throat. He feared that Rensuke would hit Naoto if he let them stare at each other for any longer. "We wouldn't…"

It seemed that Kabutenji got bored of their little act and hit the desk. "I don't mean to interrupt your little lovers quarrel, but there are matters I wanted to talk you about. Matters, that needs to be talked about, because it concerns the wellbeing of your crew."

"My crew?"

" Yes, your stinking crew. As you see, lately almost every cargo ship is filled with navy officers. It's not just the so called _Artemicion_ you tried to rob. Same happened when someone tried to attack the _Pollendina_ and the _Adamantine_." after a minute of silence, he continued with an unexpectedly sharp voice. "Ten cargo ships in a week and almost every unimportant ship had high security on her deck, while those who carried luxurious goods were left unguarded."

Leaving the kids for their thoughts, Kabutenji pulled out a cigarette from the drawer in his desk, wordlessly lit it.

"So your suspicion is that someone might have a plan including transport…" Wanda added, as if talking to himself while putting the pieces together. This earned a glare from Namikawa who still felt that he'd lost his title as captain. "Sorry, Cap't."

"Nevermind." Namikawa shrugged.

"I would highly appreciate if you stopped this now." he said bluntly, blowing a puff of smoke towards the boys. "Cockfight is not allowed in this office. You are the last known crew who've tried to raid a cargo and came back empty handed. Have you seen anything suspicious? Anything, that would worth reporting?"

"Let's say we'd seen something, why does it matter to you?" Namikawa gave him a challenging look "What do _you_ know?"

The experienced captain looked back at him, inhaling another doze of smoke, but this time he just let it find its way out of his lung by itself. He seemed to be deep in thought for a moment, playing with the papers lying on the desk.

"More than you, that's for sure. Look, Namikawa, what would you do if I told you the balance of the sea is in grave danger?" he said, without blinking an eye.

Kabutenji was left without a response, so he continued. "Undines, leviathans, the mighty Kraken, Tiamat… While they rarely show themselves to us, folks, who've originated from the land their existence is almost unquestionable."

"Wait, mermaids are only exit…" Nagisa started to object automatically, but once again Kabutenji stopped him from finishing the sentence and took the lead again.

"…In fairytales told for toddlers? This only proves that you know nothing."

Namikawa wanted to tell everything about his newfound 'crewmember', yet that would lead to giving Kabutenji too much information. One thing he couldn't allow without knowing his intentions with this little tale.

Then, feigning ignorance, he joined the conversation with the best possible statement. "Even the laziest tale has some base on reality."

"That's right!" the governor clicked his tongue. "Lately there are rumours we can't overlook and with each passing day their numbers keep raising. What a great puzzle, don't you think?"

_Nope._

The crew of the Ornitier started to get rather annoyed by the governor, especially since the more he talked the more aggressive he'd gotten.

"The reason why I asked you to come here tonight is to ask you a favour. Keep your eyes open, watch out for cargo ships and the navy and tell me everything you see."

"Only because you had a bad feeling about them?"

"That. And there is something else, but that is classified information, not something I would share with rookies." After that he stayed quiet, with no one asking him questions the crew of Ornitier decided to leave.

"Namikawa." the man spoke, right before the pirate left his office. "Come back for a moment, you good-for-nothing scallywag." Even though, he said mocking words, his voice lacked any kind of joking tone. The boy sent his mates downstairs and stepped back into the office.

"What do you want, old man?"

The governor just smiled as he left the comfortable leather chair and walked towards his old showcase. "There is something what Kuki left here for you years ago." he explained rummaging through old junk. This collection seemed to be much more personal, as he handled even the wackiest masks with great care.

"You mean the Captain?"

"Aye, him. That old monkey."

When it came to Namikawa's foster father every pirate, who was around the age of Kabutenji seemed to salute in front of his memory. He wasn't just some kind of rookie, calling himself a mighty pirate. No, Kuki Masatsugu was one of the worthiest person for the title of Lord of the Seas. A rank, common pirates couldn't even dream of.

"He came here a few years ago, almost right before that night and gave me this letter." Yuu handed him a storm-beaten envelope, bearing the violet seal of the pervious captain of the Ornitier.

The only problem was that the envelope had no recipient, but a word 'Fellheaven'.

"I've guessed that you would know something about this Fellheaven, because that old monkey would never say a word about his plans. He just stormed into my house, tossed the letter at me without a word and the in next moment he was nowhere to be found." Probably half of this was a fib from Kabutenji's part to make up for the missing parts.

"Sounds like him." Rensuke agreed, slipping the envelope into his shabby jacket.

"So you know what this Fellheaven might be? A lady? A place?"

Rensuke remained silent. He knew it well what 'Fellheaven' stood for, but he didn't want to answer right away. Not to an unfamiliar person. Fellheaven stood for a place he never intended to visit in the future, not after what he had to go through there.

He took a breath, and then muttered is reply. "…I'll take it to the recipient_ if_ I find out anything."

"Great, I knew I could count on ya! And don't forget to keep your eyes open for me, I know it sounds like a fib, but our future might depend on youer pretty eyes."

Namikawa just shrugged at his remark.

When he spun and started to leave the door behind he'd heard voices coming from downstairs. He could easily identify Wanda and Nagisa, but for some reason Tairamaru's voice mixed into their, accompanied by a new one.

_For god's sake, should I tie him to the ship to stop him from wandering around? _

"Yoshimine you freakin' salmon!" he stormed downstairs only to be greeted by a fish tail, hanging out of a wheelbarrow. The mocking smile Yoshimine gave him enraged him even more, but the only one who was seemingly in shock was Naoto, who kept repeating the same sentence over and over. 'Mermaids don't exist.' while pulling on his dreadlocks.

On the other hand Nagisa and Tairamaru seemed to have no problem talking with the boy.

"How the hell did you get here?" he asked, trying to keep his voice from showing his anger.

"By the sheer force of will, captain!" he spread his arms, making the wound visible on his palm. "And with the help of our cooper."

_It's not our cooper._ He wanted to say, but instead just started walking back to his ship, dragging Wanda along as he still had problems accepting the presence of a merman.

"Come, were leaving the island."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

**A/N:** And at least the crew members are finally together and they have an important task on their hands. Two to be exact! Many thanks for getting at the end of the plot-heavy chapter! uvu

Also Kabutenji is from the first 3 games (2 and 3). You can meet him around Okinawa and runs under the name of Tom Skipper! :3

I hope you all enjoyed it! Because the next time the Ornitier will start sailing the waters! Furthermore Namikawa has to deal with the handicapped merman on his ship who keeps demanding Wanda's title like his life depended on it. Why does he even clings to it so much?


	5. Chapter 5

**[05] You Never Listen**

The curtain of night hid the little group as they made their way back to the ship. No one had said a word, not because they had nothing to say, but because of the eerie atmosphere what lingered around their captain prevented them from voicing their thoughts.

"Oi, captain, how did you get back?" Nagisa decided to break the silence between them. "We all thought that, you know, you were dead."

"A pact with the devil, will help you in times of need." he growled under his breath, quoting an old idiom. Admitting that he had to ask for help in the middle of the ocean would've hurt his honor. After all, a captain had the be strong, never relying on other's help. Or so he thought.

"Hey." Yoshimine turned around in the wheelbarrow "I'm not a devil, you know?!"

"True, you have fins, not horns, but you're only inches away from being a devil from the deep abyss." a spiteful grin appeared on the captain's face as he pulled Yoshimine's fin-ears, making the merman shriek from surprise.

It echoed in the empty port, making it clear that the crew of Ornitier left the living quarters. Fortunately, the shops, built for trading and ship repairing were all closed at that time of the day, so their little argument went unnoticed.

"What's your problem?!"

"You, butting into our life. That's my problem." he spat in disgust.

Before Misaki could say anything else Rensuke yanked the handles of the wheelbarrow away from Tairamaru and dumped the merman into the sea, then tossed the barrow the he side. They had a pact, but this doesn't mean he will let a fish, out of every creature make fool of him.

When the boy emerged again, he was gasping for air, just like a real human, but Rensuke didn't let himself to be deceived by the pathetic act.

"Isaribi, tell the others to get ready for our departure. And by any means, please don't listen to that thrash in the water again. Don't feed him, don't bring him on my ship, don't do anything at all."

"Alright, but… Can I talk to him?" he asked, feeling discouraged by his captain. "After all, he is your first mate and all."

'No." Namikawa said almost expressionlessly, grabbing Wanda by the arm, dragging him away from the docks.

The captain and his unlucky firstmate soon disappeared in the night, searching for a place where they could discuss the sudden changes happening around them.

Tairamaru stayed frozen in place, unable to move. His captain tended to be rude, but what he told to the merman was really not like him. He was not simply rude, but he tried to kick Yoshimine everytime he had a chance.

The boy felt skin on his leg as cold hands clutched his trousers. Yoshimine was holding himself up with his elbows, giving Tairamaru a worried look, what shocked the young cooper even more. This was no monster, so why did they had to act like he was one?

"You lied to me." murmured Tairamaru, sitting down at the edge of the dock.

"…But he told me that I can be his firstmate!" the merman angrily showed Tairamaru his wound to prove his truth again. "He has the same mark on his hand, because he said okay to my clauses."

" Yoshimine, you know we are talking about THE captain." Tairamaru explained with a sigh. "Unless there were others around you there is no way he would admit something like this, even if you have the evidence tattooed right on your face. In his dictionary, accepting help from someone equals being too weak to fight on his own."

The merman was about to open his mouth again, but closed it upon observing Tairamaru's face. "… I got it. Sorry." he apologized, lowering his gaze.

"Nevermind. So do you still want to be a member of our team?"

"O- Of course." the merman pouted. "Would I go this far if I wasn't serious?"

Before he knew it the boy was on his feet again, his face beaming with confidence as a completely new plan appeared in the back of his mind. He wanted to help Yoshimine somehow, but to do that he needed the help of his fellow crewmembers.

"I'll go and talk with the others. Come to the right side of the ship later and I'll tell you everything." He made a ninety-degree turn and marched toward the Ornitier.

Yoshimine was left there alone, with a puzzled look on his face.

::::::::::: :::::::::::

Throughout the years Wanda had come to the conclusion that not even Davy Jones himself could change the mind of his captain, once he decided on something. Probably because it was easier to keep himself on the same old road, than constantly changing course and getting side-tracked.

He was like this when they first met on that tiny island. Stubborn kid, who always got what he wanted through force and rude words. Yet, no one really had anything against his behaviour, because the same person also understood his friends better than anyone. Hurt their feelings and you had signed a one-way ticket to hell.

Over the years, Namikawa matured a lot, especially after he became the captain of their ship. But regardless of the many hardships they'd endured together, Wanda had to come to terms with the fact that the captain's anger never truly disappeared and even days after a fight, he will keep mentioning bits about it in their conversations.

Probably the sole reason why he was dragged along was just to give Namikawa a good opportunity to scold him for acting too soon, visiting Rottingham and visiting Kabutenji without waiting for his return. God, the list could go on as of why he should be thrown into the sea, yet when they reached the bar there was no signs of the upcoming storm.

Even when their destination turned out to be harmless place at the far end of the town his suspicion was still present.

"So…" he sat down, expecting a reasonable answer from his captain. "Listen, if you want to behead me for today, then it wasn't me, Kabutenji insister us to come over as soon as we reached the land."

"Cut it out."

It looked like the bar hadn't had any wave customers for a while. There was a few people here and there but the place lacked the atmosphere of that good old pirate burrow. But the distinctive piercing smell of alcohol filled their lungs. Namikawa took a deep breath as he was about to ready himself for the talk.

"It's about the merman." Namikawa tried to keep his voice low, to avoid any unnecessary attention from the customers.

"What about him?" Wanda asked in response. He looked questioningly down at his captain.

"Haven't you seen him? He is a merman. And not just your normal, kind, helpful merman, no, he is a total psycho. Wants to join the crew just 'cause he helped me once."

"Oh, come on, just send him away." spat Wanda with an irritated tone.

"With the price of him sinking our Ornitier? Are you out of your mind? We 'ave no money for any type vessel ever since Murakami and Kaizu burnt down the galley. Or do I need to remind you the fortune we had to spend in order to make the ship swimming instead of smoking?"

Frankly said, they were so poor; they couldn't even buy the smallest economy vessel at the previously owned ship market. The Artemicion was their big chance to get some loot, but with Minamisawa on board everything turned for the worse.

"Nah. I doubt we will need to buy a new one, nor repair the old gal. But if the merman is so dangerous why don't we dispose of him? Ya know, sell him off somewhere far away, like, I dunno, in that certain city the capt' used to visit a lot?" Wanda seemed to hit a sensitive spot on Namikawa's ego as the latter gave him a piercing, cold glare. "S'rry."

"You better not saying anything else. Besides I won't tolerate tossing others in slavery." he spoke in a murmur. "Instead help me find a way to get rid of that scurvy brat without sinking my own ship or selling him at the fish market."

Wanda sat next to him deep in thoughts when he finally found a possible solution for their problem. So kind as always. If they just killed the kid they would have no further problems with his scales, but no, of course that was prohibited in the first round of their musing.

His fingers were drumming on the table as he slowly imagined every possible scenario, until he found the most usable plan.

"Let the boy get what he wants. If he wants to be a pirate, then we just have to make sure he gets the most quality pirate training a merfolk can ever get."

"Not bad." the captain gave a grin as he reached for the menu. "But if your plan fails you owe me and the whole crew a round of grog at Spader's. Also the merman will be the new firstmate on the ship."

'What?! Heck, Rensuke have you gone mad?! What can a fish do what I don't?"

"Who knows?" he sat back in the chair, taking his sweet time to look at the variety of foods the bar could offer him. He hadn't eaten anything since morning. "I'm starving. What should we eat? I vote for Orange Fish."

"Get me the biggest roasted red snapper they can fetch from the ocean, there is no need for them to slice it, I'll do that myself." he growled.

Namikawa just laughed at the tantrum of his first-mate as he waited for the right moment to ask him about their visit at the Governor's mansion.

-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

**A/N:** Ah, I haven't updated in a while, right? Sorry for that, uni caught me by the tail with its usual chaotic administration works and disasterrific schedule. (Also it's not a secret that I kept wasting my time playing Ni no Kuni, master of puns, that game is)

I hope you enjoyed this tiny filler-chapter that serves as a prologue for the next arc. I know i wanted to make them sail in CH5, but Wanda needed this dinner with the captain for his own sake. Also before i forgot, red snapper is indeed the fish I used for Yoshimine's merfolk form. :o

As always reviews are more than welcomed! uvu/


	6. Chapter 6

**[06] The Captain's Decision ****  
**

When they arrived back to the docks everything was silent. Yoshimine was nowhere to be found. Not near the Ornitier, not around the docks and this only fact was enough to send chills down on Rensuke's spine. Not seeing the merman around was just as unnerving when one was aware of the presence of a mosquito, but could not see it.

Speaking of the Ornitier, the only crew member guarding the ship was the bosun, Saruga Souma. His white spiky hair almost fluoresced in the faint moonlight. He was about to get rid of the remainings of the dinner what stuck between his teeth, but his dagger was too thick to winkle out the meat-piece.

"You'll cut off your tongue if you keep using that blade as a toothpick." Namikawa greeted him, hitting the bosun on the back.

In his surprise Souma not only started coughing but jumped too, dropping his blade in the water and sending it to the bottom of the harbour.

"Cap't," Souma readjusted his glasses in embarrassment, "And Wanda… I thought you will be out for the night."

"Are you insisting that I'm not welcomed on my own ship?" Namikawa gave him a lopsided smirk as he made his way towards the Ornitier.

Souma was walking with them and it looked like he had much to say. "Cap't look, about that merman you caught today…"

Namikawa stopped in his tracks and sent an almost frightened look toward Naoto. Merman? Please, let it be someone else.

"What about it? Don't ye dare to tell me that you brought that rotting fish on my deck."

"Aye, 'tis not the case. Just… we came to like the little scoundrel a lot while you two were away and thought about keepin' 'im around, but then we were told by Tairamaru that it is forbidden. You know the rest." he shrugged.

"Just how you can't see monkeys playing poker, you won't see fish going on adventures with a ship," Wanda explained in a very diplomatic manner. Namikawa seemed to go off the track they decided to follow, so he needed to step in in case his tongue slipped about their plan.

After all Yoshimine could be anywhere if the crew was already aware of his existence. In the end it got better, because all of their mates were on the deck, waiting for their captain to come back.

Hopefully they didn't have a plan.

"Where is that ignorant deck-swabber?"

"Which one?" asked someone from the back of the ship.

Namikawa sighed, "The one that was gobbled up by a fish. Is he here tonight in our small group of friends?" He looked around, but no one seemed to shiver in fear yet nor raised their hands to speak.

"Captain, the big thing is, Yoshimine left a while ago," said Tairamaru weakly, hiding his face by staring at the flooring.

"Are you sure? A liar's punishment is worse than those who fail to complete a task given by their captain," he warned the boy, but it didn't have any effect. Yet the fact that we wasn't willing to look into his eyes was an obvious sign, that Tairamaru tried to keep some secrets to himself, but if the crew wanted to test Namikawa so much, then be it. It just makes it easier for him to turn tables with the merman.

"Yes, I'm a-absolutely sure. Not long after you two left, we had a talk and he expressed to me how he changed his mind, because he didn't see our crew fit to the task of helping him and yadda yadda. I've heard he went to the Kurbli Isles, we should go after him."

Kurbli Isles were famous for their industry built on _a _certain type of dog toy, an award winning place for good for nothing pirates to spend their vacation doing nothing. To think that even merfolk knew about it raised some questions in Rensuke.

He knitted his brows. "That's a shame, really. I was about to invite the lad to ouer crew. But I guess if he is about to play all day with rubber chickens, I won't hold him back. After all the way of pirates is not meant for mermen."

This was the part where the cat should've jumped out of the bag with Yoshimine shouting at them, but nothing happened. Rensuke glanced at the crewmembers; something about their dishonest expressions told him that Yoshimine's sudden departure for the Kurbli isles was a fib, but he couldn't find any evidence to confirm his prosecutions.

"We should go look for Yoshimine to tell him the good news." Nagisawa tried to be the voice of the reason on the other side of the ship, yet he only caused the whole thing to fall apart.

"Nah, we ain't going to the direction of those isles for a good year. At least not until Christmas or some other solemn occasion like Wanda's birthday."

"Hey!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to spoil your present." Rensuke couldn't help but to let out a chuckle, averting his gaze from Naoto.

If there was one thing Wanda hated aside the supernatural creatures, it was rubber chickens from Rensuke every single year and it seemed to change into a running gag among the crew because the poor toys often served to annoy the hell out of him.

When they had no food, those squeaky chickens almost immediately came into sight as decorations on their table, but rumours were told that the captain himself had one in his cabin, among the many junk he'd collected on their various adventures.

"What I was about to say-" he tried to get back to his half-serious style, but oh god it was hard. Not after someone started imitating the voice of the said toys. "Murakami, stop that!" he pleaded between tears. The tiredness was about to get his brain functions too.

"So what I was about to say, if Yoshimine is so eager to buy us rubber chickens, we should let him have the time to collect the money first. I daresay, we should pay Senbayama a visit to refill our food stocks, then in a few weeks there will be a ball at the neighbouring area, I bet there will be a few ships we can rob."

"Oh, you mean the ball at Tengawara?" Namikawa almost jumped out of his skin upon hearing that dreaded word leave the lips of his fellow crewmember.

"Hell, no. The place we will visit is not full of freaks, who are so high and mighty about knowing how to read their so called star map," he raised his voice. He didn't want to do that, but it happened faster than he could silence his enraged thoughts. Sadly, this was a touché topic.

After that, he refused to even look at the people in front of him. They had gone through this road so many times, he lost count of them. Tengawara left an old scar on the whole Ornitier, but Namikawa was still under the pressure of the past.

The others have moved on, but he was so involved in the events what happened on that island, that it made the healing process much more painful, the wounds eventually poisoning his thoughts about that place.

"Come on, Cap't. We haven't visited Tengawara since, you know…" Saruga called after him, but it seemed he was talking to the back of his captain.

"And this is exactly the reason why we won't visit it now, either." Wanda jumped in, shooing away the crew before they could experience the captain's wrath. "Back to your posts, everybody, we are going to leave Rottingham at dawn. Check every single rope around the ship, make sure we have no tears or leaks then go to sleep and repeat the process in the morning! The Ornitier just escaped from a dire situation, we don't want to sink in the first turn."

Wanda gave out orders like a true veteran quartermaster should, ensuring that no mates could disturb Namikawa in his pondering. With the disappearance of the merman the old problems resurfaced, making him wonder if it had been better to keep the boy around.

Of course, he was not fond of him, but for the sake of their mental health, the Ornitier needed to experience something new or else they'll just end up losing their ship one day.

::::::::::: :::::::::::

After passing many quiet hours, staring at the water and thinking about his past, Namikawa kept on replaying the events in his head, over and over again. He tried to find the mistakes in their plans, how they failed or more like when. What made the navy attack and who betrayed their trust. It was all tangled and without his captain there was no way he could solve this mystery.

He wanted to read the letter so badly, in hope to find some clues, but he couldn't even bring himself to open the seal as it made him feel nauseous every time he thought about what happened after they returned from Tengawara.

The first thing he could smell that noon was not the refreshing smell of gunpowder and the scent of rotting wood, but something much more dreadful.

"What a joke." he growled under his breath, clutching the crumpled envelope. Probably the letter was sent to apologize for what happened. he was sure that persona had something to do with the whole catastrophe.

::::::::::: :::::::::::

The sun was not high up in the sky yet, but the dark blue skies have already started changing their colours into the strange mixture of purple and orange. Before he knew it dawn had come, bringing their departure from Rottingham.

He was about to rest his aching head on the ship's railing when his eyes met with a familiar face. A face that caused so many problems in only one night, that it deserved its very own section if they ever wanted to change their ship into an art museum.

But strangely enough, neither of them seemed to be in the mood for their usual quarrel.

"I see you've changed your mind once again," Namikawa told him, not raising his head from the railings.

"I never left in the first place."

"I know." Namikawa squeezed his eyes shut. "What do you want? Still blabbering about joining my crew?"

"Well, I wouldn't be here if I had any other plans in mind, would I? I'm bound to you by blood." Yoshimine's answer was much more restrained than when they'd met at the Governor's house. It was almost calming, making Rensuke unable to respond.

The merman in the water gave him an apologetic look.

_Kittens._

Came into Namikawa's mind. Kittens did the same when his mother was about to kick them out of her house. They purred and snuggled closer to her until she said approved of their stay. After that his mother was non-existent for the cats.

Those drooping ears, the sad eyes what seemed to hold so much understanding toward him, all of them were part of this strange sea cat's plan.

But Rensuke didn't care.

"You know what? You can call yourself the member of my crew, just don't go giving orders to my men and don't ever come to the deck! You'll swim. Swim all day; swim all night, until I say it is enough. "

"Aren't you a tiny bit harsh? Even if I have fins, it's like running next to one of your devil carriages. The ones pulled by those neighing creatures," he added.

"Do I look like I care?" Of course he didn't, Rensuke was preoccupied by his headache, but deep down he felt bad after imagining the example.

"No. But you look like someone who could use a few hours of sleep. I can see the dark circles under your eyes even from here," the merman was about to say something else, but he closed his mouth in silence, without ever starting the sentence.

"And whose fault are these?" he angrily pointed at his eyes.

"Alright, next time I'll tug you to sleep. Sing you a song or two, just stop you from blaming everything on me," he huffed.

"Hey, I didn't do that."

"Go to sleep. Even arguing doesn't seem to go your way this morning."

"I have to be ready for our departure." Rensuke explained.

"I don't care. Wanda can sail the ship without your help. Go to sleep, you lousy sleaslug!" he shouted this time and splashed a few droplets of water towards Rensuke, but they fell back on Yoshimine.

Probably the loud voice had the desired effect on him, because Rensuke stopped himself from countering the merman's word. There was a bit more time before everybody wake up and he could use that time wisely.

He hid the envelope in his pockets and left for his cabin, without saying anything else to the merman.

"Pretending to be strong won't get you anywhere." said Yoshimine after he heard the door opening and closing. He still struggled to find the answer why he found the Ornitier so fascinating. Especially the captain; who was nothing like him, and yet for some reason he was very like him in some way.

**A/N: Another week, another update. I daresay, writing this fic has really grew on me in a strange way. I've never dreamed that I'll be able to write almost 10.000 words about the pirate lads. But it's just too fun to play around with Kaiou members. uvu **

**Also don't mind Kurbli Isles, kurbli means "crank" in my language and I just really wanted to add some 'gibberish' island to the mix and words like this have their charm.**

**Thank you to all the readers who'd decided to follow this story.**


	7. Chapter 7

**[07] Measure of a Man**

Days have passed almost uneventfully after Namikawa finally agreed to recruit the new crewmember and Yoshimine seemed to enjoy being with them a lot, so he never really complained about the harsh treatment. Swimming almost all day was a hassle and sometimes he felt like he won't ever reach the ship, but after learning how to ride the bow waves created by the Ornitier nothing could really stop him.

Nothing, except Namikawa.

The pirate captain still acted like having Yoshimine around was a curse, brought upon his ship by the Fate herself.

Whenever their eyes met when Namikawa was inspecting the sea, the young captain quickly averted his gaze, pretending to be occupied with something else. At that time, Yoshimine was only a fish in the sea, not his mate. On top of that there was no way he would let him become a fully pledged member of the crew!

::::::::::: :::::::::::

After their second week the Ornitier finally reached its first destination; the agricultural port town of Senbayama, located at the delta where the Lorne river emptied into the sea.

On its own, Senbayama was only a rural town with the typical pagan folklore about gods of harvest and other supernatural beings. And that was it. But since the area was lucky enough to be completely left out of almost every military movement and enjoyed neutrality since its day of foundation, it had no heroic tales or epics on its own, only the anecdotes told by the visitors, merging with their fishermen tales.

It's not like the townfolk had anything against their lifestyle. Thanks to their calm history the town could expand and evolve without ever falling into enemy hands and over the course of time many trading company decided to rent their main office in the heart of the port. Their money could've been measured to the water of the Lorne river.

Out of the many strange laws they'd made to ensure this calmness, probably the most curious law of the area was their complete prohibition of military activities. This meant that pirates, navy and trading vessels enjoyed protection from each other and upon breaking the law the opponent ships got sunk almost immediately by the town's defence forces.

No wonder when they arrived to the market Namikawa felt relieved. Even if they'd met with their enemies they wouldn't have any right to raise their guns to their head. Thus captain was idly walking down the street with his fellow crewmembers, trying to find the necessary supplies for their journey.

"I daresay, you look strangely happy today," came the remark from Gunki.

"Because today is a very special day, when I don't have to look at our dear," said Namikawa with childlike excitement in his voice. They haven't spoken a word after that awkward morning, but his crew couldn't stop talking about the boy.

"Come on, we all know that you like him."

"This is a severe misconception I would like to erase from history." Namikawa found it hard to calm himself when he was thinking about Yoshimine, but he started to get used to dodge the remarks regarding his decision. He won't change his mind that easily!

"Severe misconception, my ass! You're just too stubborn to open up to him," Gunki patted him on the back. "Sometimes a simple greeting can do wonders, ya know? Just try talking to him once in a while. Like, about the weather. He is nearly not as terrible as you describe him."

Namikawa chose his words and spoke. "I will... keep your words in mind. But don't expect me to welcome a freeloader on my ship!"

"That's what I wanted to hear."

At the end of their conversation the two boys had completely merged into the hustle and bustle of the crowd, searching for their chosen cambist.

Pirates couldn't just give stolen jewellery and foreign money as payment, due to the difference of metal amount in their treasures. It would have been too easy and too hassle-free that way, if they could just leave a golden ring on the counter for food. Unfortunately, whenever they wanted to refill their supplies or spend some money, they had to visit a money exchanger who would measure the value of their goods.

Finding a reliable one was hard, though. Just like how merchants loved their money, cambists were the same. They would go great lengths to earn some extra cash, even scamming their customers. One had to know who could be trusted or else even pirates could be chiselled out of their hard earned money.

In Senbayama, their local cambist was a young boy called Mitsuyoshi Yozakura. He usually sat next to a small stand with a scale, somewhere near the Omni trading guild. He had his red-violet hair tied into two buns, inviting new customers with a fox-like grin. Those who were unfamiliar with his strange ways would pay the price of the gullibility, but returning customers formed an entirely different category.

"Long time no see, pals! You look well!" he greeted Rensuke and Gunki with his widest smile. "I'll bet you have come with some nice wares in your bag, yeah?"

"Nothing much. The navy have their dirty hands on almost every merchant ship out there, ya know?"

Mitsuyoshi snickered.

"But of course. If the navy is on the move we feel their steps on our pockets before anyone else," the boy cackled, patting his pockets few times. Trade guilds were the place if one could get any information for a reasonable amount of money as they had a strong connection with each other.

To stay in business they needed to predict everything that could be connected to money in some way.

Mitsuyoshi was a big trickster outside of business, but when it came to money he knew no mercy. If the navy or any other armed force started some kind of operation the money would slowly lose its value causing harm to them.

Rensuke'd started to doubt that their small loot will fetch a good price, but showed him the old leather bag.

"Then how about appraising these for us? It's easier to hear the numbers, than talking about how the navy ruins in the local business."

"Aye, good going, Renny." Mitsuyoshi hastily took away the bag from them, carefully inspecting its contents. It was only a part of the Artemicion's treasure, but upon seeing the expressions on the cambist's face Namikawa had the feeling the golden jewellery doesn't worth much.

"I can give you three thousand silver _penger_ for this lot or…"

"Or?" Namikawa glared at him, thin-lipped.

"Well so to speak, three thousand is not much, or at least, it's less than it was a few months ago. Not going to be rich from this one. Nope-nope. You would be better off with golden money it would be harder to pay with it, but your loss would be smaller." he sighed, obviously fearing his own business.

Because silver was used for weapons, along with the small amount of copper, it was a known routine that silver coins were collected back to the mints in order to get the remaining silver out of them, thus lowering the value of money.

It was all about listening to the coins when they fell on each other.

"Pirating is not a good business now, eh?" as Mitsuyoshi cackled again, tears started rolling down his face. Every passer by looked at him not understanding the reason of his cheerful attitude. "Well once you're up and now you're down. Life is like playing Ring around the Rosie, so why a pirate's life would be different?" he added when he calmed down.

It seemed Gunki was about to ask _'Wouldn't that mean that pirating was never rewarding?'_ but he stopped himself, knowing that they had to be careful with their words when they were dealing with Mitsuyoshi. Just because he was more reliable than the other cambists around them, didn't mean that he couldn't strip Namikawa out of his money if he wanted to.

"Don't spare me, how much would be this in golden_ pengers_?"

"Are you ready for my big revelation? One hundred golden pengers and this is a friendly price because I know that you'll have to deal with the local market prices afterwards."

After hearing the price Namikawa's eyes opened as wide as they ever got. He preferred his payment in silver, because gold, even if it looked pretty, was the most useless currency for making smaller payments.

They'll be buried under silver pengers anyway…

::::::::::: :::::::::::

"We should buy some beef jerky, don't you think?" Touga Tooru, their one-eyed cook, was trusted with the mission of doing grocery shopping, but now that they ordered almost everything the leftover money started burning his hands.

Fukami was acting like his heaver, holding crates filled with potatoes on his shoulders. Tooru insisted on taking them to the Ornitier instead of waiting for the carriage as he didn't wanted anyone to fill the crates with stones like last time. The two huge crates were all self-assorted.

"You don't even _like_ beef jerky," Fukami tried to solve the mystery behind Touga's strange ideas. First he wanted to buy jam for Namikawa and now they were talking about beef jerkies.

"That is correct! I absolutely hate the salty, sour favour of it, but isn't this something a merman could never taste?" he winked at his boulder-sized mate. Fukami hesitantly nodded with a puzzled expression, still trying to put the pieces together. "But you hafta admit that the captain's mood ruins the taste of a fine food. I can't let Rensuke blow up my kitchen with his sourness! It's like eating rotten sea urchin meat!"

"Wait, so the food you made in the past few days wasn't expired in the first place?"

"No, but if you keep talking about my culinary wonders this way, I'll make sure to put some sea hare poison next to your potatoes," he grumbled.

"No need for that. I believe you."

Though many of them had no idea that the spices Touga used were expired a few years ago. They still had the bottles from the times when Kuki was the captain, but just like everyone else he decided to keep them as a memento. After all, his mother would always say that spices never expired if mushrooms didn't sprout on them.

That Namikawa. He had no sense for a good business.

Merfolk live in the sea, the sea is the home of fish they could never catch from the Ornitier. Asking Yoshimine to fish for them would make their journeys so much easier. Furthermore, healthier! Even salted wish had the tendency of becoming spoiled.

The sea would be their marketplace, not Senbayama's dirty streets.

But when they returned to their boat the only one waiting for them was Saruga. Yoshimine was nowhere to be found just like when he had an argument with Namikawa.

"Oi, is our merman around today?" Tooru asked their bosun, but Saruga just raised his hands and shrugged, tilting his head a little.

"Yoshi said something about having business around the delta, then he just _pshooo_ disappeared with a splash. I haven't heard of him ever since that. So nope, he is not here."

"But I _am_ here. You can't expect me to float here all day waiting for the others." Yoshimine re-emerged from under the water with a dirty rug in his hand. The rug that was filled with various junk he'd collected at the bottom of the harbour, landed in the boat with a metallic _klang_ sound.

"This is what those losers leave in the harbour, " he announced with a smile. The fabric contained various coins and other small treasures. Some of the money was unknown even to them, but since the merman only found a few pieces they couldn't exchange them for money unless they deemed to be extremely rare or legendary.

"What's your plan, Yoshi?" Saruga asked with a knowing look, holding a silver coin towards the sun.

"How about letting me stay on the ship? At least for the nights." he suggested.

If the crew had any power when they decided what should they do with Yoshimine, their captain would've been alone with his lone 'nay', but with Namikawa being in charge, the merman's fate was sealed to the sea.

Even after he showed him how useful a merman could be his timing once again proved to be terribly bad. The captain was still depressed after his deal with Mitsuyoshi and he didn't even want to hear the merman's reasons.

::::::::::: :::::::::::

Thus, on the following night, Yoshimine started his so-awaited plan B.

If things won't go his way if he asks nicely, then he will use force! The only thing he needed was enormous amount of strength and endurance. And these were things he gained thanks to Namikawa's stubborn attitude and the harsh pace he had to follow through the last two weeks.

When he made sure that everyone gone to sleep his work had begun. On that night the only sound that could be heard from the Ornitier were similar to the rattling of some stray ghost's chain. Sometimes these were accompanied by splashes and blunt thuds, but no one bothered to wake up to them.

Just like how the loud cry, echoing through the silent night went completely unnoticed.

**A/N:** **Happy NamiYoshi day everyone!**

**You have no idea how happy I am because I managed to finish this chapter on the ship's day! I tried to stay accurate with how mining and issuing silver coins worked, but I have to admit my archaeology lecture is only a distant memory now. u_u **

**Yoshimine seems to take some drastic actions! But at the same time the once calm sea is at rage and ready to take out whatever comes into her way!  
**

**Thank you for reading this chapter! Reviews are always welcomed!**


	8. Chapter 8

**[08] Mopping the Deck**

Many things were not among his plans early in morning, especially because waking up was never among Namikawa Rensuke's strongest features. But he had to admit; meeting the cold deck helped him a lot with this problem. He was sure if he didn't swing his arms forward the crew could go back to Senbayama and find a new captain for their ship, because in the moment of the impact he could've broke his skull.

But after his first confusion Namikawa'd decided to look back at the unexpected obstacle. A fish. More like a giant red fish what ended in the middle and from that part continued as a human.

Indeed, the creature greeting him so early in the morning was none other than the moron merman.

Namikawa was waiting for the wave of anger to wash over his head, but it never came. When he looked at the peaceful face, his anger disappeared into thin air. Without the usually mocking smile and furrowed brows Yoshimine gave off a completely different image. Something,that matched the description of his lineage from the ancient legends.

As he watched the slumbering merman, with ears folded back to Misaki's head, Namikawa couldn't help but think positively about the boy.

It was almost a shame to wake him.

On the other hand, a sleeping merman was not something he wanted to see before the rise of morning sun.

After he got to his feet again he tried giving a slight kick to Yoshimine's side. The only reaction he got was a slight mumbling and the boy turning onto his other side.

Namikawa was about to raise his voice, but that would've attracted his crew to the deck, giving handicap to the sweet-talking merman. That damned thing managed to befriend almost everyone in such short span of time. If they started to quarrel, his mates would probably choose the merman's side, ignoring every logical possibility.

"Misaki."

It did nothing.

"Hey, Misaki!"

Fed up with the merman, Rensuke grabbed the boy's shoulder and shook him. First, it had no effect, but after repeating the process a few times with more force, an irritated squawk echoed through the ship.

"What's gotten into you?" he yawned, sweeping the dream out of his eyes.

"The hell are you on my deck you, ignorant sea urchin?"

"Apparently, I _was_ sleeping. But since someone always sails without me, I thought it's easier if I make myself the resident of this cosy ship," said Misaki, swishing his tail in irritation.

"I thought you have fins, so swimming after us shouldn't be a problem for you," answered Namikawa, shrugging.

"And even if I have fins, I can't swim after your ship all day and all night," Yoshimine cocked his head. "Or don't tell me that you would run next to that thing with round legs or whatever, if you could just sit on it instead."

"I told you already, there is no way I will let you stay on the Ornitier. You may have your title as my sailor, but-"

"And as your sailor, I have the right to spend time with my mates!"

Namikawa perfectly understood Misaki's scheming. It was so simple. Yet, by the time he realized the merman was a fully pledged member of the crew. He not only memorized their names, but had enough time to actually befriend and study everyone's habits.

No wonder, when Rensuke brought up the possibility of Yoshimine staying on board, no one really said anything against that. Even Wanda shared their views and stated that he didn't mind the merman's presence. He wishes to keep his title as the firstmate, though.

"You should be more open." said Nagisawa to his captain. "Most sailors can't even dream of catching a undine, and here we have one as our friend. Isn't this cool?"

"See, I'm so lovely even human males would fall for me!" Misaki chuckled, theatrically sweeping away his red strands.

"Thank this to your fish-half," Rensuke snapped back at him, before an idea appeared in his brain. He remembered Wanda's advice from that night. Originally he wanted to keep the merman tired and weary from swimming after the Ornitier, in hope that he will give up his pirate business and go home.

But this guy was a _mad_man. There is no way in Port Royal, that he would just jump aboard. It was impossible, even if his pectoral fins were huge. This secret was something that bothered Rensuke more than anything.

"My captain often said, those who don't work should not eat," he began walking on the deck, holding his head high while looking down at the merman.

"Hmph," said Misaki looking back at the captain. "I don't like the sound of this."

"It was never my intention to make you feel calm," he chuckled. "So how about this? You can temporary stay here, but only, and only if you work. Wanted to be my mate? Then you can be one and work just like everyone else does on this ship."

"You keep missing the obvious fact that I lack those two noodles that humans use for walking."

"Well, then you give me no other choice than," he lifted up the merman in bridal style. Misaki let out a surprised yelp and threw his arms around Rensuke's shoulders.

Yoshimine probably weighed more than a grown up shark, but the captain kept his pokerface, and without showing any signs of struggle he started tiptoeing towards the edge of the ship.

"Wait! What do you want to do?" Yoshimine shrieked in panic.

"Isn't it obvious?"

"W-We have a blood-oath! I'm a sailor here, you know?!"

"Yeah, a sailor who can't work. Now get back to the water and entertain the barnacles!"

"I'll do it. I'll work, just don't dare to throw me back!" The merman was desperate. It seemed to Rensuke like and expression of defeat and he was about to turn back when the weight of the merman made him lose balance.

Unsurprisingly, Misaki pulled him down and they both took a cold bath in the sea.

_**SPLASH**_

"Should we get them out of the water?" asked Souma with an indifferent expression.

It took Naoto some time to realize that the question was addressed to him.

"Naaay. It's too priceless to see Rensuke heating up the whole sea with his anger," he chuckled. He enjoyed the moment of superiority and while Naoto would never admit, seeing Rensuke flailing in the sea was way too amusing.

He kind of regretted that he was so hard-hearted with the merman back in Rottingham. That guy really knew how to play with Rensuke.

"Fish them out when they ask for it. Until then, just enjoy the show."

A bit surprised, the boatswain nodded. Wondering how to get the merman out of the water.

::::::::::: :::::::::::

After scolding Yoshimine for being heavier than Moby Dick, and asking for the boatswain's help, Captain Namikawa Rensuke went back to his cabin to think. The first thing that came into his mind was to throw the merman back to the sea, again. There was no need for slackers like him.

However when he was about to confront the boy about this, Rensuke was stopped in his way by the sailors.

The faces of the boys gathering there was full of determination and, for the first time on their voyage they stood up for someone from the crew.

The captain has lost his resolve. After all, if even Wanda was against him, then who was _with_ him?!

"Alright, alright! He can stay!"

Rensuke turned to Misaki who was enjoying himself from the water-filled lifeboat. He didn't want to ask when, why or how the hell had the thought occur to them to use a boat like this.

Either way Misaki's position as the member of the crew was secured.

"Sea urchin, are you going to work or that was just talk to persuade me and everyone else on this ship?!"

"Well, for my part I've already reached my goal." he smiled, not caring about the captain's foul mood. "I don't mind a little work."

He immediately regretted his words a few moments later when a stinky old rug was thrown at his face along with an old broom and a bucket.

"I want this deck to sparkle more than the ballroom in Raimon's palace," he told this without ever seeing the said palace.

"Do I look like a carpenter to you?"

"No, just a dinner ingredient with attitude problem."

::::::::::: :::::::::::

Hours have passed since Rensuke had given out the orders for Yoshimine, and then went to take a nap after the eventful morning. He tried the route of waking up for the second time that day, and without any failure, the kid had managed to ruin it for the second time too.

"The hell did you do?" he asked the merman while wearing a shocked expression.

"Excuse me?" Yoshimine looked back at him. The boy was doing the job Namikawa gave him. Due to having no legs to stand on, he was clutching the lower end of the broom and used it to pull himself closer to the other side of the ship.

He did well, despite being a merman.

However the deck didn't look any better, because now, instead of salt and the usual seagull droppings, the deck was covered with tiny red scales. Namikawa picked up one of the scales from the floor and with long steps; he walked toward the boy, showing him the evidence.

"Could you explain this to me?"

Misaki narrowed his eyes and with the other side of the broom he pushed Namikawa's hand away.

"I do wonder what that could be? Some ancient treasure perhaps?" he narrowed his eyes even further. "Oh, I know this. Aren't you humans used to scratch these things off from the body of my glubber-friends?"

The cynical answer surprised Rensuke as he'd never seen Misaki being in such foul mood. It only occurred to him a few seconds later that the rug he gave to the merman was tied around his stomach area, probably to prevent him from losing more scales.

"You can't speak now, right, captain?" His voice was filled with malice as he pushed the captain back with the broom.

"Does it… hurt?" he asked, giving Misaki and apologetic look.

"Only as much as it would hurt if you tore out your nails," he shot back. "But you know, this is nothing compared to what I had to endure back then. So punish me all you want, I won't change my mind."

This was completely off from Rensuke's plan. He imagined the merman would back off from the job as it was not meant for him, yet it seemed Misaki had seen through their machinations.

The young captain cleared his throat, searching for words, but Misaki curled his lips back, showing his snow white teeth. He smiled but within it, Rensuke could see the pained expression.

"Come on, it hurts, but it's nothing serious."

Surely not, Rensuke murmured to himself as he took away the broom and bucket from the boy.

"I'll go and look for Kouichirou and Tooru," he stated.

"Isn't Tooru our…?" Yoshimine was searching for the right words.

"Yes, he is _my_ cook and surgeon. Also, you'll be working with him from now on," he said, turning back to the merman. "Also, I need someone to clean your mess."

"Just don't forget to bring me food," he shouted after Rensuke.

"Aye, hope you like red snapper. There is an enormous one on my deck right now."

It was their usual banter.

Misaki had asked something, and then Rensuke countered it with a witty or cocky answer.

Someone had been observing the scene from the head of the ship, staying within the shadow given by the crates. The person saw something that could've easily gone unnoticed by the untrained eyes. But nothing was safe from him, if that fact could be used as a dagger.

And right now, it seemed their beloved captain had a soft spot for monsters.

**A/N: This ends another chapter in our story and I'm happy to announce that the fic have passed 30 pages now! Just look how time flies! (Oh, is that the exam month I see on the blue horizon?)**

**Many thanks to Colin and Terra for keeping my hype for the Cap't. It takes some heavy kicks to get me into the writing groove, but seeing your reactions always make my day and inspire me to continue writing. After all they say, if you start doing something motivation will come to you naturally!**

**My deep thanks for all my readers even though some of you like to stay silent after reading chapter. It's okay. **

**Although every single review means the world to me, so please don't hesitate to leave one! It might not seem important to you but for a writer the teensiest one worth a lot.**


	9. Chapter 9

**09. Finish What You've Started**

If someone ever asked you about the right placement for an aquarium, you would try doing your best in choosing the right place for your little swimming friends, carefully measuring your possibilities while keeping in mind the needs of the fishes.

And this is fine, because this is what you should do in such situations.

Just like finding a new place for the freshly bought flowers, you can't just hide them in the corner, hoping for a bloom. And in a way animals are the same. You have to meet certain conditions to keep them happy.

But when it came to Namikawa's decisions, they always seemed to attract more and more problems.

After all, no human in their right mind would exile a merman to the kitchen.

However since we are talking about Rensuke, who clearly has no idea about fishes and their ideal environment, Yoshimine Misaki ended up in the kitchen, trying to survive the hell for all fish.

::::::::::: :::::::::::

It was like sitting at the slaughterhouse. He was surrounded by fish. Dead fish to be exact. And he had to watch as Tooru ran the tip of the knife through their bodies, gutting out the poor creatures and throwing their innards away.

"It will be good for the soup," he added after he saw Misaki's confused expression. However, he completely missed the horror residing in those dark eyes.

The merman was scared.

He had never seen what humans do with his kind, so he could only imagine that they eat them like merfolk, but this was mass slaughter, especially witnessing everything from that small wooden basin.

Was he the main course? Could that be…?

The kitchen, or the room what the crew of Ornitier named like that, was a rather unfriendly place. Wherever he looked, he saw bags and barrels with unknown content, piled up on each other. In the corner of the room, right next to the window, stood a stone stove. But it took up so little space from the cabin; one could easily mistake it with a storage.

On the wall, various small bottles stood in order, but once again, Yoshimine was unable to guess their content. Probably those were medicines. Or spice. Or dried fish organs.

He tried to avert his mind from Tooru and the knife, but when he was about to observe the barrels, the bigger man turned to him with a small knife and a bucket in his hands.

This was it. The final moment! He will slice his throat, collect his insides and cook them for the crew. He sat there, unable to move or speak. The merman was sure he'd made the biggest mistake in his life. But when he was about to scream, Tooru just handed him the knife and the bucket.

"Don't just sit 'ere. Try peeling those potatoes for the boys." the half-eyed man let out a proud snort. He never had the chance to order people around. "Ya look paler than a jellyfish of the shore, is everything all right?"

"Ye-yeah." he shrugged, giving Tooru a faint smile, then pointed at the table. "I'm just not used to… well… that."

Tooru looked around, but it took him a good moment to notice the fish carcasses.

"Ey, sorry 'bout that. I haven't got the slightest idea that this might creep you out. You ain't 'ave to eat it if ya don't like fish."

"It's not that. I mean, we eat fish too. But why do you have to cut them?" the merman started to become more and more curious about this massacre.

"Well, some humans, well, most humans don't like fish guts. Especially Wanda and the cap't, they are like two noble dandies when it comes to food." While he was talking Tooru tried to show Yoshimine the secret of potato peeling, being extra careful with the merman's inexperienced hands.

"But it's a waste of food, isn't it?" Misaki asked as he was trying to use the new technique. It required more coordination than he thought and he almost ended up cutting his fingers.

"Ye, it would be. But here is the trick. They _do_ eat the innards as soup. So technically, I don't waste a damn thing. Not even their eggs or…" Even though he eye shined like he was telling about the greatest adventure he ever experienced, Tooru suddenly stopped, looked at Yoshimine.

Telling him all the ingredients of this miraculous soup was not the best idea. "Sorry, I got carried away by the blabbering."

They were working in silence after that. Yoshimine hissed a few times when he ended up cutting his fingers, but continued the task he was given. But deep in his mind, he couldn't stop thinking about his goal. He wanted adventures, great storms, fights and now he was sitting in a basin, potato skins peels swimming around him.

This was far away from the revenge he'd planned back then.

And not very pirate-like.

"Collect them in this." Tooru handed him another bucket, nodding with his head towards the remnant potato skins.

"Let me guess, you'll cook the peels too."

"Yer train of thought is right. They make good snacks for the crew."

"Now you made me think about how potatoes taste like." he murmured.

"Their taste is nothing extraordinary. But they're must have food on any ship if you want to eat. Also..." It seemed he just remembered something. Something he planned with his fellow mate.

Tooru quickly reached into the small ragtag cupboard, grabbing a few pieces from his secret foodstash. "Back at Senbayama the captain told us to buy you something," he lied, giving Misaki a few pieces of beef jerkies.

Of course, Namikawa was never involved in buying snacks for the merman.

"What are these?" Misaki was confused at first. He tried to solve the mystery of the thin, deep red jerkies, but none of his answers seemed to fit the mysterious gifts.

"Even if I told you, you couldn't imagine 'em. So just eat 'em, because once one of those scoundrels find their way to the kitchen they'll be gone in no time."

Misaki hesitantly bit the corner of one of the meat pieces, but the taste what followed it was truly indescribable. It was salty, yet sweet, while reminding him of some kind of meat. He looked at Tooru smiling from ear to ear, as he took a bigger bite from the jerky.

The cook could've sworn that he saw tears glittering in the merman's eyes.

"Fantastic! I love these things!" he leant back in the basin, swishing his tail excitedly. But as soon as the wave of happiness disappeared he grew quiet. "But why would Rensuke give me something like this?"

"Well, that sea puppy is not as stonehearted as he shows it. Quite the opposite." he laughed, while keeping his attention on the stove. "Just give him some time and he will surely warm up to you. Furthermore, I think that scallywag likes you more than he shows it."

This statement made the merman chuckle as he was chewing on the last beef jerky. Everyone kept saying that Rensuke needed time, but considering their situation it was impossible to imagine any kind of relationship or bond forming between them.

"He hates me more than anything," he stated.

"Well, if he hates you, then answer me, why did he came running to my kitchen asking me to treat your wounds from cleaning the deck?"

"I…"

"Do ya see now? This is not hate. If he hated you, you would up there, washing the deck over and over again until you had no scales left on your tail."

"But the way he talks to me says the opposite."

"Aren't you doing the same?" Misaki flinched slightly. "You two are always bickering about something. Bit 'tis fine. I haven't seen him acting like this in ages."

Finally, the conversation seemed to reach that point where he could start asking about the captain and his motivation. He was way too young for this position and the way the crew talked about the past made him really curious.

"Did… Did something happen to you back then?" he trailed off into silence for a second. He felt bad for being so nosy, but he had to know.

"I think it's up to him to tell you since he knows more detail about the event, than us. But yes, a few years ago we had it quite rough. I don't want to open the dead man's chest, but if it weren't for Rensuke and Masatsugu, we would've died too, along with the others," Tooru sighed, but regained his confident attitude as soon as he looked at Yoshimine. "But it served as a milestone for us. So don't even start apologizing for asking me."

Misaki nodded.

He still felt bad for asking about it, though. As he watched Tooru reminiscing about the past, he could see worry clouding the man's vision.

_Just what the hell happened on the Ornitier?_

In that moment loud thumping sounds could be heard coming from outside of the kitchen and split seconds later, Murakami kicked the door open; his ponytail came undone from running around the deck in the past ten minutes, warning everyone about the upcoming danger.

"The captain is calling everyone to the bridge." he panted, keeping his balance by firmly gripping de door frame. "Someone has spotted the Dauntless."

"Wait, it can't be the Dauntless. That ship was sunk by the navy last year." Tooru shook his head in disbelief.

"That's it! But it can't be anything else. It has the three blue leaves on the mainsail and all."

"Gunki, wait, but what about the crew? Weren't they all hanged at Blood Island?"

"Don't ask me. The captain only told me, that he has bad feeling about a destroyed ship suddenly resurfacing from the bottom of the sea." he hesitantly shrugged.

"I see." he turned to the confused merman. "Look, Misaki you stay here and no matter what happens don't leave this kitchen."

"But I can fight too!" Misaki shout back, but he was powerless. In both rank, and strength.

"I think it would be better if you stayed here, fishboy," said Gunki. "I like you and all, but you would be in the way if the Dauntless happens to be our enemy."

Tooru ordered Gunki to get his medicines and other equipments from his cabin. The boy ran off without asking anything else. Tooru was about to leave too, holding his basic equipments he was using when Namikawa appeared holding Yoshimine in his arms. As a surgeon he had to be near the clash in case someone needed medical attention.

When the merman called after him, his eyes sparkling from desperation.

"Let me go with you!" Misaki suddenly burst out.

But Tooru only shook his head again with an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, Yoshimine. But I can't let you injure yourself."

The door closed and with a faint click the cook locked Yoshimine alone in the room. The poor merman just sat there dumbfounded, now knowing whether he should scream in anger or start throwing vegetables towards the door. Both seemed to work, but it wouldn't bring Tooru nor anyone back for him.

He could hear the crew running around like poisoned mice, shouting each other's name, but he couldn't hear one single "Yoshimine" or "Misaki", not even the synonyms Rensuke'd came up in the past days. The ruckus had went on without him.

The name of the ship kept echoing in his mind.

Dauntless. _Such lazy name, _he thought witha forced smile.

He wondered how it looked like. Was it huge, like a barquentine? Or it was a frigate, like the Ornitier? Curiosity was killing him.

At the same time an unfamiliar feeling rose in his chest.

His anger slowly turned into worry. The crew of Ornitier was in danger and he wasn't there to help them in their fight.

"Probably they won't attack us," he mumbled to himself, trying to avert his thoughts from a possible attack. After all, the Dauntless was sunk by the navy so why would they attack a fellow pirate ship? This made no sense.

Unless the ship was copied from the original Dauntless.

Nothing can just re-emerge from the sea, whenever they want. The devil must have been hiding behind the details.

And unfortunately, it seemed his intuition was good, because a half hour later something struck the waves with such force the Ornitier violently rocked from one side to another.

Without question, the Dauntless attacked their ship.

The only one who could've easily got rid of it was exiled into the warm prison. Thoughts started racing in his mind as he tried to find a way out of the galley, but nothing really fit his capacities. Unlocking the door was out of question, burning down the door was just way too risky.

His eyes travelled to the window next to the stove.

In that moment another shoot shook the ship, but this time it came from the Ornitier. Through the glass he could see the ship turning into position, trying to stay out of range. It seemed to work for a while, but then the Dauntless started turning along the Ornitier, restlessly attacking its sides.

_If this goes on, the Ornitier will sink,_ Misaki thought, then started looking around for something that could help him in the fight.

The crew of the Dauntless will regret the day they attacked his mates.

**A/N: And thus The Dauntless attacked the crew, ruining their idle journey. What horrors are waiting for the clueless pirates and their merman? Will Yoshimine reach Namikawa in time or the Ornitier will suffer unrepairable damages thanks to Tooru's decision? And who is the captain of the mysterious pirate ship?**

**I hope we get a chance to meet again and that you'll do me a favour of following the story of these characters' for a little while longer!**

**Until then, please leave a review! It means a lot! Thinking that the first review will be the last is not a bad way to think, but please, surprise me just once! **


	10. Chapter 10

**10. Hope against Hope**

Probably every pirate in the area knew about the Dauntless and how it met its end on that fine evening. It was one of the most well-known stories among young fledglings, used by old sea dogs as an example of what pirates should _never_ do and repeat in the future.

The legend follows the pirates of the Blue Reef islands who were always longing for honour, and fame so their rivals would speak of them with respect in their voice. But for them it was the most impossible task in the world. One ship and handful of men could hardly ever reach the level of other pirate dens, and the pirates, who lived on the tiny island of Aoba knew this more than anyone. Their small ship was no match to the infamous _Black Waltz_ or Tengawara's pride, _Pleione_. Even the Ornitier could easily knock it over with the wave she could create.

_Beginners' vessel. Cheap boat. _

That's how fellow pirates used to call the _Tribalis_; and this is what pursued the captain, Shougetsu Nozomi to make a fatal decision by taking away the ship that belonged to the navy.

The Dauntless.

However, stealing the Dauntless happened to be a reckless move. The loss of the vessel made the fleet admiral so furious, he'd sent every available ship after Nozomi's crew to sink the Dauntless once and for all to retaliate for the humiliation caused by the lousy pirates. As for the Tribalis? It was destroyed by its own captain as a symbol of saying goodbye to their old life.

Rumours say this catastrophe saved the Ornitier back then from complete destruction, but someone from the navy had yet to confirm this miracle.

Yet, one thing is sure; the Dauntless was sunken by its very ex-owner's days after the heist and to prevent the pirates from Blue Reef islands from further actions their hideout was burnt to ashes. It had become one of the major news on those days, along with the destruction of Marine Snow, another infamous pirate den.

After that, it's no wonder that everyone was quite shocked about the sudden reappearance of a sunken ship.

Aboard the Ornitier, Rensuke tried to keep the ship facing towards the Dauntless with all of his strength. If they were to fight side by side, the Ornitier might've gotten more than one hit from the incoming cannonballs and thinking about the previous clash with the Artemicion made him really careful about his decisions. While this position would make any ship defenceless and render it unable to make a counterattack, the Ornitier had some tricks up in her sleeves, like the two front cannons below the bowsprit. They were far from the strength or size of the main cannons, positioned at the ship's sides, but the cannons were only there for keeping their opponents preoccupied with the incoming shoots.

After sending everyone to their position Wanda ran to the captain, asking for further instructions. he could've handled it alone, but he feared that Rensuke would think that he is playing make-believe as secondary leader.

"Captain, what now? Should we launch a frontal attack or run?"

Namikawa looked at him, his eyes showing pure anger, probably towards the fellow pirate ship.

"Attack. I don't care how, but I want to see the Dauntless going back to its place."

"Why?"

"Do you remember the oath we had to learn when Masatsugu first took us for a short trip?"

Wanda looked puzzled for a while. It was not forbidden for pirate ships to attack each other. After all, they weren't hail-fellows to begin with. Their mutual respect came from piracy, but this didn't prevent them from pesky little sea battles.

"I only remember the parts regarding our behaviour on the ship, why?"

"Look at that!" the captain nodded with his head towards the jolly roger and this was the moment when Wanda finally saw through Rensuke's anger. His expression shifted.

"It's the same…" he murmured. Namikawa nodded. Wanda was well aware of what that meant.

The Jolly Roger was none other than the one their group used. The pirates of Aoba were never associated with them so they had absolutely no right to use that flag; this was the first suspicious movement from their part. The second one was the act of attacking the Ornitier who was bearing the same symbol.

Apparently the flags on a pirate ship acted as a sign for those who joined the same group. It had the simple meaning: _"I'm a friend. Don't shoot."_

By attacking them, the Dauntless not only mocked the pirate tradition, but broke an important law.

_Provocation_. That was the first thing Wanda could think of. There was no way anyone from their own group would attack Namikawa. After all, the Ornitier was one of the main ships of Marine Snow and the only one that survived the catastrophe what strike them few years ago.

"This might be a trap," the firstmate said, worriedly looking at the captain.

"I know. This is why we have to end this bad joke here and now! A disrespectful ghost ship like this must go down today, even if I have to punch a hole in its side with an axe. No one in this world has the right to bear our symbol on their flag!"

After his captain's outburst, no further words would come so Wanda decided to step back. Rensuke started to scare him with his destructive attitude. The captain's anger slowly took the best of him and it seemed that the Dauntless reached her goal. In the midst of chaos the Ornitier was about to meet its end if someone didn't prevent it.

So the quartermaster silently went back to the crew and took matters into his hands. If it wasn't for him Rensuke would have made another great mistake, risking everything he'd been working hard until now. He had to admit, this wasn't surprising at all seeing how the dear captain was easily manipulated by a monster.

It was fine until the merman brought difficulties into their monotonous every days, constantly making a fool out of Rensuke, but lately things have changed. Now the captain who was so eager to get rid of a merman did everything he could just to keep him aboard.

What a hypocrite.

Not even this would change anything.

Everything went too well, one would say, according to the plans. But now the Dauntless was about to shatter the web he weaved with so much care. And there was no way he would ever let Rensuke ruin it, because he lunged at any ship bearing their flag.

"I won't let the ship go down with Rensuke's idiocy," he growled pushing one of the canons back to its place.

Just like Rensuke, everyone else was disturbed from seeing their flag on an enemy ship. The scars of past were present on everyone's heart and the trident reminded them of the reason of their homeless pirate life.

They made no attempt to hide their feelings.

In the meantime, Yoshimine Misaki was in a really awkward and _tight_ situation. From his small basin the window seemed to be much bigger, or at least wider. Reality's first gift was the following: the window was too narrow for his hips, but by the time this small little obstacle stopped Yoshimine in his mission, slipping back to the kitchen was out of question.

"Damned thundering typhoons!" he cursed as he tried to pull out his lower part from the frame of the kitchen window. His only equipment consisted of a knife and the hammer Tooru used to whack the fish on the table.

One would easily mistake him for such fish.

He was hanging out of the window like freshly washed clothes on a beautiful sunny day, the enemy in question was right in front of him so was the water, but both were unreachable from his current position. In his frustration he hit the side of the ship with his weapons like an angry child who got coal for Christmas.

He wanted to help them. He genuinely wanted to help his mates. And what was their answer? Locking him in the kitchen, saying that it's for his sake, without thinking about_ his_ skills. He could've swam there in no time, hitting a few holes in the bottom of the ship without the Ornitier risking its safety.

That was the power of a merman.

He stared at the water growling and cursing about his state.

But as Misaki looked down he noticed something extraordinary about the sea below him. The water was foamy, and it turned brown for some unknown reason. The movements of the dark brown smudges were unnatural; they swam rounds around him, sometimes stopping without ever reaching the surface.

Tik, tik, tik. The walls suddenly shook from an impact, but it was no cannonball. The source of the percussion originated from the water.

It didn't take him two seconds to realize that he wasn't alone with his ship-sinking plan and there was no way that fish could swim like this. They were too organized for that.

Again the sound that reminded him of crackling firewood, repeated, but this time two hands reached out of the water to grab the side of the ship.

When the first enormous fish head appeared on the surface of the water his irritated thoughts were no more, and had been replaced by a more frightening source of strength. Fear. Humans with fins of fish were normal. They were merfolk, legendary creatures who ruled the seas, but the creature gazing back at Yoshimine was anything but legendary.

It was a monster. Wordlessly opening and closing its mouth and hitting the Ornitier with its human-like slimy arms. The creature had the face of a fish, but it held some human features or expressions. It growled at the merman and tried to reach him somehow, but fortunately the distance between the sea and the window was too big.

For now.

"Oh god…!" Yoshimine shrieked as the creature used its claws to climb up on the side of the ship, pressing its claws into the wooden planks. Soon others followed their leader climbing towards the first target they noticed.

"I suppose fighting isn't bad once in a while." Yoshimine said and gripped his seemingly unusable weapons. He laughed at the absurdity of the situation, but if Fate gave him this card then he might as well use it to save his friends.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-,-

**A/N: And this closes the second part of the Dauntless arc, also starts a new one within it. Somehow this is the tenth chapter. I have no idea how did I reach it so fast, to be honest. **

**Also, we have new enemies appearing in this chapter who seems to share some common traits with our merman. Are they really that vicious as Yoshimine sees it? Can he defeat them using a small hammer and a knife?**

**Where is the butter when you have a merman stuck in your window frame?**

**I'll see you in the next chapter!**

**Please, review if you liked the chapter. I know it is silly, I know this story doesn't uses the regular cast of characters OR ships, but it would make my heart flutter if once in the history of this archive I would get more than one review for chapter. **

**Prove me that miracles do exist!  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**11. Unacceptable People**

The fishmen kept climbing towards Misaki at an unimaginable speed, their claws left small marks on the Ornitier and not long after the first had crawled out of the water; the merman had to realize that he is dealing with a horde of those monsters, not only one or two. All of them were gawking at him, showing off their tiny uneven sharp teeth and grey tongue.

One glance and Yoshimine started questioning what made him feel sicker. Hanging from the window or looking at those muddy fish. The creatures probably caused more disgust in him with their human-like faces and limbs.

But before he could travel further with his thought, his consciousness was pulled back to reality.

"…!"

He readied his knife and made a deep cut on the face of the fish that climbed too close to him. The monster glared at him with its empty eyes, dark brown fluid oozed from the wound, but the fish didn't fall. Its claws were stuck deeply into the wooden plank, preventing it from losing its balance.

_Belch! Get away from me!, _thought Yoshimine as he gave a final blow to the creature's head with his hammer. Finally, the monster fell back to the sea.

The thought that these things would've found him completely defenceless if he didn't try taking part in the battle, made his current state much better. Sure, he was a merman struggling to escape from the window frame, but at the same time, he served as a line of defence on the ship. Suddenly, being up there seemed to be better, than swimming in the sea.

Yet before he could've finished his train of thoughts another fish came up to him and barred its claws at his face. Yoshimine's heart stopped beating for a moment as the air generated by brown claws reached him. Only a few inches were between him and the attacker.

He quickly tossed the fish back to where it belongs by slamming his short knife into its head. He repeated the steps over and over again, to get rid of the invading monsters, but every time he seemingly killed one, another took its place. Yoshimine started to get sick of this; his hands were shaking from fatigue and shock, but his instincts kept him alerted, strengthening his grip on the weapons.

Probably he would've kept this up if his dear Captain Namikawa didn't turn the ship's side towards the Dauntless, bringing the merman to the frontlines of the battle.

_Great timing as always…,_ he had thought as the enemy ship came into the view.

"Fire!" he could hear Kaizu's voice piercing through the noise of the battle and the cannons sent heavy cannonballs flying through the air. Until now, that side of the ship was safe from the smoke generated by the cannons, but this time Yoshimine met the enormous amount of the suffocating gas.

_I'm down here, jerks!,_ he wanted to shout but the moment he opened his mouth he gulped down a big doze of gunsmoke what not only made him unable to speak, but prevented him from fighting as the series of heavy coughs urged his lungs to get rid of the black smoke.

With eyes hazy from tears, he peered down to the monsters, but their attacks have stopped for now. Even those seemingly dumb fishmen knew to avoid smoke and they were all waiting for their time.

In that moment explosions could be heard and grey smoke enveloped the Dauntless. They countered their attack. The air shook, as he watched pieces of rubble falling off from the Ornitier's side. But there was something that bothered him more than the damage on the ship, the window frame moved out of its place and only good luck kept his body in the same place.

Another row of fire could be heard. This time, he brought his arms up out of reflex as if foretelling where the explosion will hit next time. The side of the ship was crushed this he fell out of the window. Yet, this newly gained freedom only brought problems for him.

Yoshimine crashed into the water with his back, but never appeared again after the impact. No one was there to witness this scene, and now there was no one to keep the creatures away from the ship.

::::::::::: :::::::::::

Namikawa was sure the Dauntless will give them a serious headache, but to think that it'll fight back so vehemently… Now this was surprising, probably more surprising than the fact that it attacked them in the first place.

"Full-sail!" he ordered the crew and in the next few moments all of their sails were catching the strong winds. This meant that they could slip away from the Dauntless' lazy and slow attacks, but attacking back became challenging work as the ship and the captain had to work together with the wind. While it provided them the much needed extra speed, the wind also had its own negative effect by making turns and aiming extremely hard and tiring. Though, he had confidence in the skills of his crew. When he looked at them he felt proudness enveloping his mind. They were so young, but everyone did their best to win this fight.

"What are you further instruction, captain?" Saruga asked him, readjusting the glasses that almost fell off his nose bridge.

"We'll keep attacking! If the Dauntless survives that, then we will board the ship."

"And what comes after that?" Wanda made a snarky remark, but Rensuke decided to shut out his negative tone. He tightened his grip on the ship's wheel, but the sound of something breaking left him with deep unrest within his heart. Fighting wasn't the right thing to do, and he knew it. The Ornitier, while she was a great vessel, was not meant to be a battle ship as her strength lied in her speed rather than firepower. It was a ship made for quick boarding and escaping. But withstanding shoots were not among her best abilities.

_I'm sorry Captain…_

For some reason he had the feeling that the previous owner of the vessel was turning in his grave. They've barely paid for the repair works and the ship looked like a pile of junk. Broken rails, holes in the deck and only god knows what else…

The deck instantly reminded him of Yoshimine's cleaning madness and its futility, but before he could ask Tooru about him the ship shook and unearthy creatures crawled onto the deck. Before Rensuke could comprehend the sight of brown creatures, a series of shots echoed in the air and the fishmen collapsed, writhing in agony thanks to their wounds.

Gunki was holding his blunderbuss at the level of his eyes, still standing in the position for aiming. But when it came to shooting something Gunki didn't ask questions as monsters probably didn't follow this tradition either. So as soon as they appeared on the deck he took matters into his hands and pulled the trigger of his trusty blunderbuss.

First, the monsters seemed to collapse from the shots, but after few seconds they once again stood there like nothing happened. The same dark brown blood running down their sides, creating small streams.

The tides have turned and the ship, what previously avoided damages, was caught in its own chaos and the Dauntless' attacks. With monsters tearing apart the unity of the crew and cannonballs doing the same with the Ornitier, they've been fighting a one-sided battle.

"Where did these things came from?" asked Funaki as he cut off the tail of the nearest monster with his cutlass. The fishman let out a sharp cry of confusion and pain, but seemingly hasn't felt the loss of its precious limb. The dark haired boy gulped when the creature counter-attacked, he could barely jump away from the sharp claws what were flung rapidly towards his way.

"Do you believe that if I knew, I wouldn't be here today?" next to Funaki Yuuto, a tanned boy with ginger hair shot the monster, it was Fujita Sumitomo. "Bullseye!" He announced in a victorious tone when the monster fell face-forward.

"But thankfully you forgot to check your horoscope for today." Yuuto teased his partner. "Anyho'! We need to come up with a better plan if we want to protect this ship."

"How about escaping from the Dauntless while we deal with the fishies on the deck? We could easily outrun them in open water!" recommended Fujita, a smirk appearing on his face.

"This won't happen." muttered Naoto with furrowed brows, before going back to his job and organizing the upcoming attack.

From the Jacob's ladder Kaizu ordered them to fire the cannons once the ship was swimming in a better angle.

Vaguely sensing something, the small boy gazed down from his throne searching for the invaders. He had to lean out to get a better view on the side of their ship, but what he saw after that was way worse than the few sluggish monster.

_Crap…_

Terrified, he automatically called for the others, but they were too invested in the fight. No one had noticed the pitch black smoke coming out of the kitchen, the very place where Misaki was locked at the beginning of the clash.

"What's the big emergency?"

Tairamaru ran to the small sailor, seeing his frightened signals. The boy was not good at fighting so all he could do was to assist the crew with small tasks, acting as a messenger between them.

"… I think Misaki is in trouble…" his voice was uncertain, should he ask Tairamaru to check on the merman? Though, he didn't have to ponder too much, because without asking him, the white-haired boy was already at Tooru's side, asking him about the kitchen key.

"Did something happen?" asked Wanda when he noticed that on Kaizu's side of the deck the flow of information and the orders have suddenly stopped.

"The side of the ship was seriously damaged, sir." the small boy reported in an official tone. "The hit landed near the kitchen so Tairamaru went downstairs to check on Misaki and make sure that none of our recent _attackers_ made their way into the ship through the hole."

He was waiting for Wanda to scold him for acting so self-willed, but his reaction was a sincere nod. "I'll send someone after Tairamaru, just in case."

::::::::::: :::::::::::

The corridors were clean and no monsters have made their way into the ship, or so he thought. Tairamaru was nowhere near the kitchen so it would've been foolish from him if he came to this conclusion so early. But he couldn't help thinking that Misaki is alright, since everything was so calm inside of the ship. It was like walking inside of a sound-proof room, what protected him from the harsh reality.

_Of course he is alright, we're talking about Yoshimine Misaki after all, _he thought confidently as he was walking towards the kitchen.

Just as Tooru told him, the key was still in the lock what meant that Misaki couldn't leave the place even if he wanted to. _He couldn't escape, even if he wanted to_. His fingers were clutching the doorknob, but for some reason he didn't want to open the door yet. For some reason, he knew what will greet him at the other side and it was a sight he wanted to avoid as long as he could.

But by delaying the present he put Misaki's life on the line. If the monsters had made their way into the kitchen their first target would be the helpless merman.

"Hey. Is everything alright?" asked a voice. The person who ended up with the task of accompanying Tairamaru was Souma.

"Y-Yea."

"Then open the door already," he urged the boy.

The instant he did as he was told, a salty wind ruffled his hair. To their surprise the room only kept _one _of the monsters at bay, but as soon as the poor creature lunged at them, Souma pulled the trigger and shot through the its head. However Yoshimine was nowhere to be found. The boys looked into every nook and cranny, hoping that he just hid somewhere; after all he was far from immobilized and the tiny hope lingered through the air that he'd found a way to escape from the disaster.

"Pr-probably he just fell out of the hole?!" Tairamaru tried to come up with a solution, but nothing seemed to explain the hole in the kitchen's wall, the dead fishman and the merman's disappearance. he hesitantly looked at the stove, bright red embers smouldered on the ground around it creating smoke as the wind breathed new life into the coal pieces.

"I doubt that," Souma answered when he went to the hole. "I doubt he wanted to leave in the middle of the fight, also that would mean that he had to drag himself to the window. He is strong, so it's not _impossible_, I guess. But how would he reach the windowsill? I daresay, he was sitting here, waiting the end of the storm, when the wall went KABOOM and the fish came in."

"That's not the problem and you know it." Tairamaru stopped the detective from making more deductions, by focusing his attention to a more important task. "We have to tell the Cap't."

"Seriously? Taira, he is about to get a stroke from the incoming problems and you want to add oil to the fire? Are you out of your mind?"

"Is it better if we just go up and lie to him? Yeah, let's sugarcoat the fact that someone is missing! No worries here, he will get that damn stroke after we've dealt with the Dauntless and the monsters. Nothing is better than being shocked three times a day in a row," he shouted angrily, even surprising himself on the way. But how could Souma tell such stupidity? He couldn't understand.

Souma having understood Tairamaru's anger seemed to tear away his confidence. All he could do was to stare blankly at the shorter boy, glasses slipping down from his nosebridge.

"I'm sure he is okay…" he muttered at last.

"Me too, but the Captain has to know about this, now! Not after the end of the battle."

Souma hesitantly nodded, gazing at the Dauntless what became perfectly visible through the hole. He couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off. No, it wasn't the flag or anything like that. The boy grew suspicious of the series of strange coincidences what happened in these short hours.

He ran his gaze over the area, but seemingly no one was controlling the vessel. Her sails caught the wind, but from the opposite side, making the ship goes slower on full sail. Any proper captain would've guided the ship to a secure position, to avoid leaving holes in their defence. But not the Dauntless.

The picture still missed a few puzzle pieces, and connections here and there, but Souma had to realize the bigger picture was more horrifying than he originally thought.

"Have you noticed… that ever since the monsters attacked our ship the Dauntless is surprisingly quiet?"

"Now that you mention it…"

Tairamaru froze when he looked at the Dauntless. He didn't notice it until now, but the attacks have truly ceased after the first monster appeared on the deck. Occasionally, the Dauntless would still fire at them, but those were nothing but small mosquito bites.

The realization sent shivers down his back. They were in an impossible situation.

**A/N:** Whoa, this chapter was sure long also it took years to write. Looking up the vocabulary for the ship was a true nightmare, and interesting, but terrible nightmare. Though I have to admit playing Grandia and the pirate sequence of Sly 3 had helped me a lot. I just wish the story won't have more open water sea battles. I'm fine with boarding, but with this… So many things to keep track of. *falls and chooses not to get up*

Before I forget, many thanks to **Raspberrydevil** for pointing out a huge formatting error in the story. Hopefully the series of : will do the trick now, because the site has eaten both my line breaker arrows and the STARS. (Come on. How the hell could I use STARS in a mean way? All books use them.) I went back and corrected these errors, so now everything should appear just fine, no sudden changes in sceneries and characters.

Saying anything about the next chapter would be spoiler-ish, so instead let me thank you for reading this chapter. Reviews are always welcomed.


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